Surprise Return
by kellicb
Summary: AU, Clark went away for training to return to find a lot of things have changed. Mostly K rating with a couple of mature chapters. I will note at the top of the chapters when they are more mature.
1. Chapter 1

Quick summary - this takes place after Lois & Clark started working together at the Daily Planet, so somewhere after/during season 8. It's total AU. It might have some familiar references but that's it. It's already complete (I swore to myself I'd never start another long story again without finishing it so I didn't want to publish this until it was complete). I will write one-shots here and there involving these characters because I love them so much and there's more to tell. Enjoy!

**Surprise Return-prologue**

_Prologue_

Clark rolls over and smiles when he notices Lois, stretched out next to him, with nothing but a sheet covering her. She slowly stretches and opens one of her eyes.

His smile widens.

"Hi."

Her other eye opens and she returns his smile. "Hi," she says, almost shyly.

"You sleep well?" he asks. He gently pushes the hair back from her bare shoulder.

"Uh huh," she mumbles. "You?" She drapes her arm across his chest.

"Yeah." He glances over at the clock and there's a subtle change to his expression, but Lois still notices it. "You hungry?"

"Starving," she replies.

He leans down a little and kisses her forehead. She watches him closely as he gets out of bed and pulls his boxers and then sweatpants on. "Pancakes?" he asks as he grabs his t-shirt off of the floor.

"Sounds good. I'll be down in a minute," she replies, sitting up in the bed, loosely covering herself with the sheet.

He nods and leaves the room.

She lets the sheet fall to her waist and thinks about the night they shared. She couldn't believe it...she and Clark. They had been dating for a few months but there was always something holding them back from taking that next step. But something happened yesterday that changed Clark's mind. There was almost a desperation to their love making last night. But, it was still perfect.

She found her discarded underwear and smiled when she saw one of his flannel shirts hanging over the back of a chair, so she grabbed it and put it on. She was still buttoning it when she reached the bottom of the stairs.

"I decided to make bacon and eggs, too," Clark says. He smirks when he sees what she's wearing. "That looks much better on you than me."

She walks over to him, reaches up and wraps her arms around his neck. "I like it better on me than you, too." Her mouth closes over his.

He deepens the kiss and has to stop only to flip one of the pancakes.

She goes over to the refrigerator and gets the juice out. She then starts to set the table.

He glances over at her when he hears her sigh. "You okay?"

She nods and smiles. "Perfect. You have all my favorite pancake toppings out already."

"Of course." He smiles with some sort of satisfaction. They had a wonderful night together. It was more than Clark had ever dreamed or imagined it would be with Lois...but it was soon going to end. He debated on whether he should tell her or warn her, but he didn't want to be the one to remove that happiness from her eyes. At least not right now.

Maybe he was taking the coward's way out of it...but this was for everyone's best interest. For the good of the world.

"Did you hear me, Clark?" Lois asks. She's now standing on the other side of the counter from him.

"I'm sorry, what?" he asks, clearing his mind from his worries so he can concentrate on this moment.

"Did you want toast?"

He stares deeply into her eyes, memorizing every moment. "Yes, please."


	2. Chapter 2

**Surprise Return**

_4 years later..._

"I don't care, Perry...it was a direct quote!" Lois almost screams into her phone. "Okay, fine. I'll retract the statement but I'm doing it under protest."

She pushes the end call button on her phone and glances over at the counter where her three-year-old daughter, Ella, is eating her macaroni and cheese.

"Are you mad Mommy?" Ella asks, glancing over at Lois.

"Mommy is a little upset about work...but she's getting over it now."

She puts her phone over on the counter, out of sight and scoops some mac and cheese onto her own plate and sits across from Ella.

"You like your mac and cheese?" Lois asks.

Ella nods and takes another bite.

Just as Lois starts to put a fork full of noodles to her mouth, there's a knock on her townhouse door.

"Great...what the hell?"

"Mommy bad word..."

Lois gets up from her seat and goes to the door. "You're right, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. Oliver...what the he...heck, does he want?" she says when she takes a look through the peep hole.

He smiles, that charming Queen smile when she opens the door.

"Hey Legs..."

"Seriously, Ollie, you're still calling me that? Even though you've been married to my cousin for years and I have cellulite on my thighs?" she says as she leaves him at the door so she can get back to her dinner.

He follows her into the townhouse.

"I didn't need to know that...the part of the legs I get to see are still nice," he smiles. "Hi mini-Lo," he says, leaning down to kiss the top of Ella's head.

"Hi Uncwe Owwie."

"Macaroni & cheese...very healthy, Lois. Looks good," he says, smiling down at Ella, who now has a cheesy mustache.

Lois glares up at him, obviously not in the mood for lectures on what she's feeding her child.

"I haven't had time to go grocery shopping."

He takes notice of the dark circles under Lois' eyes.

"What brings you by? Not to lecture me about my cooking, I'm sure?"

"No, actually...Chloe and I wanted to take Ella to the state fair this weekend. We're taking Henry and thought Ella might get a kick out of it."

Lois eyes Oliver. "Just Ella?"

"Yeah. Oh, I mean, you can come if you want to but I know how you feel about pig competitions and such. Thought maybe you could catch up on work...or sleep," he says, gently outlining the circle under her eye with his thumb.

She slightly turns her head so he stops and her eyes get watery. She tries so hard to be a strong, single, career mom but sometimes it takes its toll.

"I'm sure Ella would love that. And thank you," she says, mustering up a small smile.

"You're welcome. I'll come by and get her tomorrow afternoon, okay?"

Lois nods. "Ella, you want to go see horsies with Uncle Ollie and Aunt Chloe this weekend?" Lois asks enthusiastically.

Ella nods as her eyes widen. "Gwandma's?"

Oliver leans down so he's more at eye level with her. "No, not Grandma's this time...we're going to a big fair with cotton candy and horses and piggies...oh and a merry go round. You're going to love the merry go round."

Ella smiles and nods.

"Sounds exciting," Lois agrees.

_Friday evening..._

Lois blinks and her computer screen. She's been staring at it for 15 minutes now without typing anything.

"I think that's a sign that it's time to go home," she says.

She flips her computer off and opens her drawer to get her purse but pauses.

"Home to what?"

She shakes her head and puts a couple of things in her bag.

"What do single women do on a Friday night these days?" she chuckles.

Suddenly, she hears a commotion out in the hallway. She runs into the hall and walks over the window where there are a group of people standing.

"Oh my God, did you see that? What do you think that was?" someone asks.

"What's going on?" Lois asks, trying to figure out what they see.

"There was a loud noise outside so we ran to the window and then there was this...thing...that flew by," another person said.

"A thing? Like a bird?" Lois asks, wondering why they were making a big deal about a flying bird.

"No, all we saw was red and blue..."

"Don't forget the cape. I swear I saw a cape, Lois," another person chimed in.

Lois squints to see if she can see anything off into the distance but doesn't have any luck. The crowd from the window slowly disperses back to their respective places, but Lois' curiosity gets the better of her and she heads to the elevators and pushes the button for the top floor.

Once she reaches the top floor, she climbs the stairs to the roof. It's just getting dark enough that the city lights are starting to shine. She looks around the roof and smiles. She hadn't been up here in years...not since...suddenly her heart drops.

"_Clark, where are you taking me?" Lois asks as Clark leads her, blindfolded out onto the roof._

"_You'll see," he chuckles at her impatience. "I can't believe you really don't know where we are."_

"_Well, you've had me blindfolded ever since we left the movie theater. I think you took me around the same block twice, just to confuse me."_

_She can hear traffic noise and an occasional car horn._

"_Okay," Clark says as he removes the scarf from around her eyes._

_She looks around and gasps. "Oh my God, Clark...it's beautiful," she says, taking in the romantic setting around her._

_There's a table for two set with a bottle of champagne chilling. There are candles and white lights scattered everywhere._

"_Who knew the Daily Planet roof could clean up so well," she says, impressively._

_He leans down and gently kisses her on the lips. "I wanted our one month anniversary as an official couple to be special," he says, grabbing the bottle of champagne._

She shakes her head and blinks away the tears.

"Seems like a lifetime ago," she whispers to herself.

She walks over to the edge and looks across Metropolis, now her home.

Lois hears a slight whooshing sound behind her and turns to see what it was but it's too dark.

"Hello, is anyone there?" she asks with confidence, even though her knees are shaking.

No one says anything but she can feel someone's presence.

"It's okay...I'm Lois Lane from the Daily Planet." Her eyes keep searing the dark for a sign of someone or anything. Maybe red...or blue...or a cape?

When she hears the whooshing sound again, she turns toward the direction it came but still doesn't see anything. She doesn't feel that presence anymore.

After looking around a few more minutes, she decides to head back downstairs. She's going to get to the bottom of this - flying "thing".


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks for the feedback. I loved writing this story.

**Surprise Return**

_Same night...Smallville_

Clark, dressed in his new red and blue attire, complete with a cape, walks into the Kent home and smiles. Nothing has changed. Everything is still in the same place. He decides to walk around. His mom wasn't home, he made sure before he landed. Part of his instructions from Jor-El was to not have contact with any friends or family, at least for a few days, while he gets used to this new identity in the World.

He walks into the living room and chuckles when he sees the big screen TV. Well, some things have changed, he guesses. He tilts his head curiously when he sees a few children movies next to the Blu-Ray player? His mom even has Blu-Ray? Clark smiles and shakes his head.

He then walks over to one of the credenzas and looks at all the pictures his mom has setting there now. There are a few from before, like of his mom and dad. There's one of he and Lois. He picks up the one of a very young girl. She has a pretty smile, dark hair and beautiful blue eyes. He can't but help to smile at the picture.

He wonders why mom would have a picture of this little girl. Maybe she babysits her, which could explain the kid's movies.

He wanders outside and heads to the barn. Once inside, he goes up to his loft. Again, everything in its place. His telescope is still in the window. He opens a few drawers and sees the Kryptonian book that Dr. Swann gave him. He leafs through it.

It had been so long since he had been here, since he had lived this human part of his life. When he hears a car pull into the drive, he goes to the window to see his mom's car pulling up. He decides it's best to head back to the Fortress, the place he's called home for the past 4 years.

_The next morning..._

"Hey Mrs. K," Lois says as she enters the Kent home.

"Lois...hi," Martha says, looking up from the newspaper. "I was just reading your article about this mysterious person who flew in and saved all those people last night," she says. Martha looks down and behind Lois. "Did you forget someone?" Martha chuckles.

Lois smiles and shakes her head. "Ella is with Chloe and Oliver this weekend," Lois shrugs. "I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself so I thought, a quiet weekend away from Metropolis might do me some good?" she asks, hoping for a place to stay.

"Of course. Anytime, you know that." She nods back at the paper. "This event happened pretty late in the evening, you must have been at work until late to get this printed in this morning's paper," Martha says as Lois goes over to pour herself a cup of coffee.

"Yeah," Lois says, thinking about it. "It was strange. I headed down to the crash site and got a lot of eye witness statements. They all said the same thing. A couple of people even saw his profile but didn't get a good look at his face. They all remember seeing red and blue flying around," she smiles. "Almost sounds like..."

Martha looks up from the paper to look at Lois. "Like the Red Blue Blur?"

Lois blinks and looks down at the coffee cup in her hands. "Yeah, but we know that's not possible."

Martha gives her a sympathetic look.

"I miss him, too...very much," Martha says.

"I know you do," she sighs and shakes her head. "Enough...I'm tired of being sad about Clark leaving to go who knows where for who knows how long."

Martha smiles at her. She wishes she knew how long, as well. When Clark came by to see his mother, in Washington, before he left to train with Jor-El, he honestly didn't know how long he'd be. All he knew was that he wasn't going to have any human contact during the training and that it could be years.

"Let's go see a movie," Martha suggests. "Your choice."

Lois' mood picks up. "Sounds like a plan. I haven't seen a movie that's more than rated G in a long time."

_Sunday afternoon..._

Clark stands on the roof of one of the shorter buildings so he can keep an eye out on part of Metropolis but is still out of site from most other buildings. He does a double take when he notices a blonde walking in the Metropolis City Park holding the hand of a dark haired little girl.

Chloe?

He quietly flies down to a spot that's closer so he can get a better view. He smiles when he recognizes his best friend. And to top it off, he recognizes the little girl from the picture at his mom's house. If that was Chloe's daughter then that would make sense as to why his mom had a picture. He wonders who the father is.

His thoughts are distracted when he sees Lois walking toward them. The little girl runs up to her and gives her a big hug. Lois picks her up and holds her close. Clark fights against using his super hearing to hear what they're saying, but he respects their privacy.

"Did you have fun, baby girl?" Lois asks, setting Ella down on the ground.

"Yeah," Ella replies. "I like cotton candy!"

Lois laughs and looks at Chloe, who looks a little guilty.

"I bet you do."

"Sorry, that was Uncle Ollie's doing. I tried to keep the kids away from that junk," Chloe says.

"Mommy can I pway on the pwaygwound?" Ella asks, tugging on Lois' hand.

Lois glances at her watch to make sure it's not getting too late. "Sure…a few minutes."

She motions for Chloe to sit down with her on the bench next to the playground.

"Thanks again, Chlo...I appreciate it. I didn't realize how much I needed some grown up time. I got to work late and be the investigative reporter than I used to be, plus I saw a rated R movie," Lois chuckles.

Chloe throws her head back and laughs. "Good, I'm glad. Hey, I read your article about that new hero in town. Did you find out anymore about him?"

Lois watches Ella as she slides down the slide.

"No. I spent yesterday with Mrs. K but I went back to the Planet this morning to see if I could find out anymore information. Hey, do you think you can look into this a little more at Watchtower tomorrow? I can stop by..."

Chloe nods. "Already on it. I had Canary stop by Watchtower last night to start doing a search on this mystery guy. I'll let you know what we come up with."

"Great, thanks." She looks at her watch again. "Hey kiddo...we should get going. Come over here and give Aunt Chloe a huge hug and thank you for taking you to the fair this weekend..."

Both women stand up and Ella runs over and throws her arms around Chloe's legs.

Clark continues to watch from afar. He smiles when he sees the little girl give Chloe a hug. He gets a little confused, though, when Lois grabs the little girl's hand and walks away with her, both waving back to Chloe.


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks again for the feedback. You guys get me all excited about this story all over again.

**Surprise Return**

_Two Days Later..._

"So, have you found out anything about this new guy in town?" Todd asks.

Lois shakes her head. "No, he's only been seen in Metropolis twice since Friday. I did find a report of a flying man in Paris yesterday morning, though. If it's the same guy, it would explain why we haven't heard from him in a day or so," she shrugs. "Hey, Todd, thanks for coming out with Ella and I today. She hasn't gotten to see you in a few weeks and was asking for you.…"

"Who _else_ would go shopping with you?" he asks. "Besides, I've missed my little Lois over there."

Ella looks up from eating her ice cream cone and smiles at Lois and Todd. They both chuckle and Lois shakes her head. "Just like her momma, huh?"

Todd puts his arm around Lois' shoulders and smiles.

Clark walks out of the men's clothing store and rounds the corner in the mall. He purchased some new things that's going to help him change his "Clark Kent" image and he's feeling pretty proud of himself. He didn't even need Lois to help him. Of course, the saleslady in the store did help a little. He stops when he spots Lois and a man across the way. He pushes his glasses up on his face, which is part of the new identity, and makes sure he's out of her sight.

Lois and the man she's with share a good laugh together and then the man picks up the dark haired little girl and kisses her cheek.

Clark feels a twinge of envy for him. They look like the perfect family.

He swallows. He doesn't even want to think about it. But, how does he have the right to get upset if she has moved on? And clearly she has. She has a husband and they have a….daughter? Clark heads the other direction.

"So, tell me about your new boyfriend," Lois says as she wraps her arm through Todd's and they begin to walk down the mall together. Todd is still holding Ella in his arms.

"He's fabulous. We'll have you both over for dinner, very soon..."

_Later that night..._

Lois gently closes the door to Ella's bedroom. She was out like a light as soon as her head hit the pillow. Lois smiles...a good afternoon of shopping at the mall with Todd will do that to you.

She walks by the kitchen counter and picks up the glass of wine she had already poured before checking on her daughter. She picks up a book off of the coffee table and sits down on the couch.

Once she starts reading, something makes her look up from the book, causing her to look over to the balcony. The curtains are partially covering the glass door but something outside still catches her eye.

Lois stands up, walks over to the door, slowly opens it and takes a step outside.

Whoosh.

She quickly turns to her right. In the distance she sees the outline of a man. She can make out any features but she definitely sees a cape.

"Hello," she says, trying to hide the fear and excitement in her voice.

The man doesn't say anything.

"I...I'm Lois. Lois Lane. I'm a reporter for the Daily Planet. I'd love to interview you..."

She bites her lower lip. The man doesn't say a word, or move a muscle for that matter. He just stands there, his cape blowing in the wind.

"Okay...well, maybe in the daylight would be better," she decides out loud. "Meet me tomorrow at 10am on the roof of the Daily Planet building...I promise to give your side of the story. Whatever that is."

Clark continues to stare at her. Even though she can't see him, the light from her townhouse is shining on her so he can see her perfectly. This is the closest he's been to her in years and he's taking in every feature.

"Metropolis would love to know more about you," she says, almost too softly, but he hears her. "So would I."

"Mommy," Lois hears from inside the townhouse. She turns and when she does, Clark takes the opportunity to fly away.

"I'm right here, baby," she says, turning to go back inside after one last glance to the sky.

After tucking Ella back in for bed and making sure she fell asleep, Lois goes to the balcony again and leans against the railing.

"_Who are you?" Lois asks._

_She sees the outline of the man that just saved her from being crushed._

_He doesn't move. She stands up._

"_Thank you."_

_He still doesn't move._

"_Do you have a name? I'm a reporter, I can give you credit for saving me."_

_He starts to back away._

"_No, please," Lois says, taking a step forward. There's desperation in her voice._

_He stops._

"_This isn't the first time you've saved me, is it?" she asks thinking back to other times when she thought she was going to be shot or burned or crushed by something….and wasn't._

"_I just want to see your face. You don't have to talk," she says with emotion in her voice._

_Next thing she knows, he's gone._

She sighs. That was her first real meeting with the Red Blue Blur and the last time she was intrigued by something this much.

"How could I have been so stupid back then, to not realize it was Clark?" she mumbles to herself.


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry, a little bit of confusion….no, Lois hasn't put 2 and 2 together that the new hero is Clark, she thinks Clark is still gone. It will be revealed how/when/why she found out that Clark was the Blur. Sometimes I get caught up with what I know in my head and don't share it even though I think it's clear so please ask me when/if things don't make sense. Thanks for the great feedback. Some of you guys leave such great notes back, I love it!

**Surprise Return**

_Daily Planet roof, 10am the next day_

Lois straightens out her skirt one more time and double checks her recorder to make sure it's working. She'd interviewed the Blur before she knew he was Clark and she wasn't nervous back then, so she's not sure why this new super hero is making her hands shake. Of course, before it was by phone and this is in person…

She checks the time on her phone.

10:05

Either he's not prompt or he's not going to show up. Or maybe he is off saving someone, she nods to herself. She shifts and then starts to bite one of her nails.

"Stop that," she tells herself and puts her hands back down by her side.

10:15

She walks over to the part of the roof that steps up to a higher level and takes a seat on the step. Pulling her phone out, she starts to play a game on it.

10:35

Her shoulder's slump. He's not going to show. Guess he wasn't interested in getting his story out there, afterall.

She stands up, straightens her skirt and walks to the door.

Whoosh.

"I'm sorry I'm late, Ms. Lane."

She freezes and her eyes get bigger.

She knows that voice.

She continues to stare straight ahead at the door and slowly turns around. Tears are stinging her eyes.

She takes him in, starting at his red boots all the way up to his smoothed back hair.

Now, that's an outfit. Tights, form fitting and the cape. There's a new confidence about him.

She opens her mouth to say something, but isn't quite sure what to say.

There's a million things she wants to say to him.

I miss you.

I love you.

I hate you.

How dare you.

I'm glad you're back.

Why are you back?

Your daughter and I were just fine without you in our lives.

I'm glad you're back so our daughter can finally meet her father.

You have a daughter...

"Lois," he starts, understanding her shock. "How….how are you?"

She walks over to him, not taking her eyes off of him.

God, he looks good. The outfit fits him really well in all the right places.

She stands in front of him, searching his eyes for some explanation.

Slowly, she reaches up and when it looks like she might stroke his cheek, she reaches back and slaps him as hard as she can.

His head moves to the side with the slap. She knows it won't hurt him, not physically but she's hoping it proves a point.

"Bastard," she says through gritted teeth.

He keeps his head to the side for a few seconds after the slap. "I'm sorry," he says.

"You're sorry?"

She pounds a fist into his chest.

"You're sorry?"

Now she pounds her other fist into his chest.

"Lois," he starts, but she is now pounding both fists into his chest.

"You have no right..." she starts to cry.

Finally, he grabs her by the shoulders and pulls her close to his body until she can't move her arms anymore.

She cries into his chest.

"I'm sorry. There's so many things I should have done differently," he says, softly. "It's no excuse but I didn't know what to do, so I did what I thought was best at the time..."

She reaches up and wipes her face and shakes her head, still keeping her face pressed as close to his chest as possible.

"I don't want to hear it right now," she says.

She pulls away from him, but doesn't look up at him.

"Lois, please..."

She puts her hand up to stop him. "No. I can't do this," she says, turning around and heads to the door.

Once she closes the door behind her, she wipes away the tears and tries to compose herself before heading back down to reality.

Clark feels defeated. It's the first time in years he's had to embrace his human emotions and it's harder than he remembers.


	6. Chapter 6

Well shoot…..this chapter keeps you guys still hanging from the last chapter, sorry about that. LOL I might post the next chapter later tonight because I most likely won't be able to post anything tomorrow night. Enjoy!

**Surprise Return**

_Watchtower - Same Day….._

Chloe is sitting at her desk, reading an email from Cyborg when she hears the familiar whoosh. She looks up and her eyes get bigger.

"Chloe," Clark says with a smile.

"Oh...my...God," Chloe says, slowly standing up and walking around her desk. "Clark Kent..."

He watches her reaction carefully. Hopefully she has a better reaction to him than Lois did.

"I'll be damned. It's about time you got back," she says as she embraces him.

He lets out the breath he's been holding and wraps his arms around her.

"It's good to see you," he says.

She pulls back a little and shakes her head. "I had a hunch it was you who was flying around in the red and blue but the cape is what threw me..." she says holding the cape and inspecting it.

He glances down at his outfit. "My mom made it for me before I left for my training. It's very aerodynamic."

"I bet," she says, trying not to giggle. "God, Clark, it's been 4 years. Have you been training with Jor-El this whole time?"

She walks to her desk and sits on the edge.

"Yeah. Mostly at the Fortress but Jor-El sent me to another planet, as well. I was there for a few months."

"So, besides flying, do you have any other new powers?"

"Nothing new, just more strength and control of the powers I already had," he shrugs.

She chews on her bottom lip and nods.

Clark finally takes the time to look around. "I can't believe you are still running this place. It hasn't changed, much."

He notices a picture on her desk and walks over to pick it up.

"But some things have," he says.

It's a picture of her family. She, Oliver and their 2 ½ year old son, Henry.

"You and Oliver, huh?" he asks.

She shrugs. "Yeah. And that's Henry," she says like a proud mama.

He smiles and nods.

"I bet he likes to hang out with Lois' daughter..."

Chloe stares up at him, trying to read his expression. "Lois' daughter? When did you see Lois?"

"I saw her at the mall the other day. She was with her husband and a little girl, whom I assume is their daughter," he says, trying to keep the disappointment out of his tone. "I mean, she didn't know I was there...I also saw you guys at the park the other day when I was out patrolling."

"Oh, I see," Chloe nods, trying not to give anything away with her questioning. It's not her business to tell Clark anything at this point. That's between he and Lois. "So, you haven't talked to her, yet?"

"Well," he says, turning around. "I just saw her on the roof of the Planet. She wasn't very happy to see me..."

"What do you expect, Clark? You make her fall in love with you, leave without saying good bye and don't even tell her you're the Blur. She had to find it out because..." she stops because she's said enough already.

Clark turns back to look at Chloe. "Because why?"

She shakes her head and walks around her desk so she's standing behind it. "No, you know what? This is between the two of you. As glad as I am to see you back, I don't blame her for being upset, Clark."

"You know, where's backup when you need it?" Oliver asks as he barges into Watchtower. He's decked out in his Green Arrow outfit, but with the hood pulled back. "Whoa..."

"We have a surprise guest," Chloe says.

Oliver looks Clark up and down. "Nice cape...see, I knew it was better for flying," he says, while making a flying motion downward with his hand.

Clark smirks a little. "Don't remind me," he says, referring to when he and Oliver tried to convince Jimmy that Clark wasn't the Red Blue Blur, years ago. "How are you, Oliver?"

Oliver nods and glances over at Chloe. "Life is good, man. What about you?"

"Things could be better. Well, I wanted to let you know I was back. I won't keep you, though," Clark says, heading toward the door.

"Are you staying around long?" Oliver asks.

Clark thinks about it and nods. "Yeah, I should be."

"Wait...Clark," Chloe says, stopping him before he gets too far. "Um, how can we get in touch with you?"

"I'll be in touch."

Chloe nods.


	7. Chapter 7

**Surprise Return  
**

_A couple nights later at the Kent Farm..._

"You want me to put on a different movie?" Martha asks Ella.

Ella nods. "Yes, pwease."

Lois shakes her head and laughs. "She's so polite to you...to me she'd be like, now mommy!"

"I seriously doubt that," Martha chuckles, rolling her eyes.

Lois watches as Ella and Martha discuss which move to watch next and Ella settles back down on the couch, curling up with her favorite blanket. Once they choose, Martha starts the movie and heads toward the kitchen.

When Martha joins Lois in the kitchen, she pours herself a cup of coffee.

"You want to talk about it?" Martha asks when she sits down next to Lois at the counter.

Lois stares at her glass of wine and starts to swirl it around.

"I don't really know what to say..."

When she looks up, there are tears brimming her eyes.

"It's hurts so bad, even now..."

Martha reaches out and touches Lois' hand. "I know, sweetie..."

"I mean, all of these feelings came to the surface when I heard his voice. I wanted to love him and hate him all at once."

Martha nods in understanding. Clark had come to see her that same day. Of course, she was extremely glad to see her son, but she knew there were many challenges facing him. Especially with Lois.

"I just need to sort them out in my head and figure out what I'm going to say to him when I see him again."

"Don't think about it too much. It's something you should probably just feel from your heart."

Lois sniffs and nods. "You're right. I'm over-analyzing. Go figure. Lois Lane over thinking," she chuckles.

Martha gives her a sad smile.

"You mind keeping an eye on the Munchkin? I'm going to take a quick walk around and clear my head."

"Of course."

Lois takes her jacket and walks outside. She's drawn to the barn and heads to the loft. Once up there, she grabs the Kryptonian book and sits on the couch. She starts flipping through it and looks up when she hears footsteps coming up the stairs. Thinking it's Martha, she starts to smile.

"Lois," Clark says in surprise. "I didn't realize anyone was up here," he says softly.

She sits up a little straighter. The lump in her throat returns. "I'm um...visiting your mom."

He nods.

He wipes his hands on his jeans when he reaches the top of the stairs. How could his hands feel sweaty? He doesn't sweat.

"Lois...I..."

"Clark," she stops him. "I don't know if I'm ready to deal with this yet..."

"I'm just sorry. I took the coward's way out by not telling you that I was leaving. It's just that, I knew if I had told you that the look in your eyes would have made me change my mind and I needed to leave to go train..."

She takes a deep breath. "I'm sure you did. The world is a better place when you're around saving it, right? I mean, you can fly now so that means you can save even more people."

He looks down at the floor and then looks up at her.

Damn him for looking so good in his blue t-shirt and jeans.

"I wish I had told you who I was..."

"It doesn't matter now," she says, getting up and walking over to the window.

"You're right. It doesn't."

He takes a step closer to her.

"You've moved on and you have your own family now. That's great," he says, unconvincingly.

"How did you..." she says, turning around, a bit surprised at how close he's gotten.

"I saw you the other day. Your daughter is beautiful. She looks like you," he smiles.

She furrows her eyebrows. He really doesn't get it. He doesn't realize how old Ella is.

"People say that a lot. She has her daddy's eyes, though..." she says, studying his eyes.

"Have you, uh, been married long?" he asks, trying to sound interested, but he doesn't want to really know.

"No," she says, holding her left ring finger up.

He feels a bit relieved. "Oh."

"Clark...my daughter is a little over 3 years old," she says, hoping he can do the math and figure it out.

His eyes search hers and he nods, trying to comprehend what she's saying.

"She was conceived just about 4 years ago…."

His eyes get bigger and it looks like he's trying to form words but nothing will come out.

She nods when she realizes that he finally gets it.


	8. Chapter 8

Ok, enough of the tweaking of this chapter, I'm just going to post the silly thing. Enjoy.

**Surprise Return**

_Kent Farm - same night…._

"Lois…." he starts, not sure how to finish the sentence.

"That's right, Clark. She's your daughter..."

"My daughter?" he says slowly. "But I didn't think I..."

"Didn't think you could father a child?" she asks. "Apparently around Blue K you can."

He closes his eyes. That's right. He was so afraid of hurting her that night that he had left blue K under the bed.

"I guess we should have used protection..." she shrugs. "But then again, I wouldn't have had Ella."

"Ella?" he whispers. This news has taken him totally by surprise. "Your mother's name..."

She smiles and nods. "Yes. Ella Martha Lane-Kent. It's a mouthful but it suits her."

He smiles a lopsided grin. "With you as her mother, I bet she can. God, Lois...if I had known..." he furrows his brows and shakes his head in regret.

She stops him by putting her hand up. "Smallville, it's too late for any of that. I know that things might have been different if you had known."

He was surprisingly relieved that she called him Smallville.

"I just wish you would have trusted me enough to tell me who you were and that you were leaving so that I could have been a little more prepared, that's all," she shrugs. "I had so many things I wanted to say," she says, turning her back to him.

"Like what?" he asks.

She slowly turns to face him again. "That I supported you and that I loved you more than anything," she says, her voice breaking.

He tilts his head a little and nods. "I was wrong..."

She takes a deep breath. "Okay. You know, we can keep going around and around about this and get nowhere."

Suddenly it dawns on him. "Lois…..how did you find out…..about me?"

"When I told Chloe I was pregnant and that the baby was yours, she told me everything and took me to Emil."

Clark nods.

"I'm still hurt, Clark. It's going to take awhile for my heart to heal and be able to open back up, but, right now, I don't want to dwell on what happened in the past. Just don't ever do anything like that again, you understand?"

A small smile forms on his lips. "Never."

He glances toward the house.

"You want to meet her?" she asks, suddenly worried about how she was going to handle this. Ella had seen pictures of Clark and knew that he was her daddy so she'd probably recognize him instantly. But how do you explain to a 3 year-old that her missing daddy was suddenly back in their lives?

"I do, but I don't want to confuse her. I mean, if she has someone she considers her dad..."

Lois shakes her heard. "Clark, there isn't anyone else. She has a ton of aunt's and uncle's, thanks to the JLA, but I haven't even dated since you left."

He nods and lets out a breath but tries to hide his smile. He feels guilty that he's happy about that bit of news.

"Come on," she says, taking his hand.

She leads him out of the barn and to the house.

"How do you think she's going to react to seeing me? Are you going to introduce me as Clark, or..."

"Clark, you're worrying too much..."

"Lois, I just found out ten minutes ago that I have a daughter. I mean...does she know about me, that I'm her dad?"

She reaches the porch and stops. He's on the 2nd to top step and is eye level with her. She puts her hands on his shoulders. "I tell her about her daddy, Clark Kent, all the time. So does your mom and Chloe…..but she doesn't know about the other stuff," she says with a wave of her hand while looking him up and down. "The powers and everything. She's the sweetest thing in the world, Clark. She's going to love you." She gives his shoulders a gentle squeeze.

Just having her say that, makes him feel 100% better. "Okay. Thank you."

Lois opens the front door and Martha looks over at them while Ella intently watches her movie. Lois doesn't think she's seen a bigger smile on Martha's face. Martha gets up from the couch and walks over to her son and wraps her arms around him. Clark hugs her back but his eyes are drawn to the little girl, curled up on the couch.

Right at that moment, the movie ends and Lois walks around the couch to turn the TV off.

"Mommy," Ella whines and stretches. "Another movie, pwease..."

Lois shakes her head. "I don't know, it's getting late baby girl..." She motions for Clark to come over. "Ella, there's someone I want you to meet."

Clark walks around the couch to stand next to Lois. He doesn't want to scare her but he's very eager to meet his daughter.

Ella looks up at him and smiles. He looks very familiar to her.

"Hi," she says to Clark.

"Hi, Ella," Clark says.

He's taking in every detail of her. From her hair to her face, her chin, her neck, her fingers...she's perfect. Just like her mom.

"You look like pictures of my daddy," she says, matter-of-factly.

Lois chews on her bottom lip, trying to hold it together for this first time father/daughter meet. Martha watches as she stands behind the couch.

"I..." Clark looks at Lois for encouragement. She nods to go ahead. "I am your daddy, Ella."

He kneels down so he's eye level with her.

She reaches out and touches his face.

"You went away..."

He nods. "Yes, and I'm very sorry about that. I was someplace where no one could get a hold of me to tell me about you or I would have been back to be with you."

"And mommy…" she says, looking up at Lois. Lois smiles at her.

"And mommy..." he nods.

"She missed you," Ella says.

A single tear falls down Lois' face and she quickly wipes it away.

"I missed her, too."

"Are you going to stay?"

Clark smiles and nods. "Yes. I'm going to stay."

Ella smiles and hugs her blanket closer to her. "Good. Mommy, can we watch another movie?"

Clark looks up at Lois with a questioning and hopeful look. Lois rolls her eyes. "Okay fine...just one more."

Ella claps. "You can sit here," she tells Clark, patting the spot on the couth to the right of her.

Clark sits down.

"We'll watch "Up"...it's my favorite," Lois says, putting the disc in.

"I'm going up to my room," Martha says, excusing herself to let the new family spend time together.

She leans down and gives both Ella and Clark a kiss on the cheek.

"Good night, Mom," Clark says.

"We can talk in the morning," Martha says, motioning to Ella with her head.

He nods.

Lois stands up from putting the movie in, Martha pulls her into a hug and gently rubs her back.

"Thank you," Lois whispers and Martha nods.

"Night gwandma," Ella says, already entranced by the previews.

"Good night, sweetie."

"Where do I get to sit?" Lois teases as she stares and the two already sitting on the couch.

"Here mommy," Ella says, patting next to the other side of her.

When Lois sits down, Ella leans against Lois' arm so Lois lifts up her arm and Ella snuggles in closer to Lois' side. When she sets her arm so that it's in a comfortable position, her hand touches Clark's arm. Lois' first instinct is to move it but she likes the feel of him being so close. She sees out of the corner of her eye that he's watching the two of them and not the movie.

She's not sure about the future but she's enjoying this moment right now.


	9. Chapter 9

**Surprise Return**

_Kent Farm - same night….._

By the end of the movie, Ella is stretched out. Her head is on Lois' lap and her legs are thrown across Clark's. Neither minded, though. Clark's hand rests on the little girl's legs and he glances down to stare at her now sleeping face.

"She's so beautiful," he whispers.

"I know," Lois smiles down at their daughter. She runs her fingers through Ella's dark locks.

"I'm sure you want to take her up to bed, but can we stay like this just a littler longer?" he asks.

"Here," Lois says, shifting Ella over to Clark's arms.

He continues to stare down at her.

His child.

His daughter.

With Lois.

He looks up at Lois, who smiles at him.

"I'll turn the movie off," she says, getting up from the couch. "You hungry?" she asks.

"No," he says, continuing to watch Ella sleep.

Lois goes into the kitchen after she turns the TV off. She stares into the living smiles.

Finally.

_The Next Morning..._

Ella is the first to stir in bed. "Mommy," she yawns.

"Hmmm," Lois says, turning the other way.

"Where's Daddy?"

Lois opens one eye. She can't believe how easily Ella called him daddy.

"He slept downstairs on the couch," Lois mumbles.

Ella sits up in bed. "Mommy, can I go downstairs?"

Lois nods, still half asleep.

Clark enters the kitchen after doing a few chores on the farm. He's missed those days where he'd wake up and get chores done before his official day began. He goes to the fridge to get some orange juice when he hears tiny pitter pattering of bare feet coming down the stairs. He looks up to see a shy looking Ella smiling at him from the bottom step. He can tell she just woke up.

"Good morning," he says softly so he doesn't wake anyone else up.

Ella suddenly feels shy and just continues to smile at Clark.

"You hungry?" he asks, going over to one of the cabinets to get another glass.

Ella nods and makes it down one more stair so she's standing at the foot of the stairs.

"What do you like….pancakes?"

Ella nods again and walks further into the kitchen. Clark can't help but grin from ear to ear at her footed Disney Princess pajamas.

"Good. You want to help me make them? Maybe we can find some good toppings."

He opens the refrigerator again and pulls out any fruit and whipped topping he can find.

"Can I have a gwass of miwk…..pwease?" Ella asks from right behind him.

He hadn't realized she had gotten that close.

"Sure. Why don't you sit up here at the counter and I'll bring the toppings over here so you can help me decide." He lifts her up on the tall chair.

After he pours her a glass of milk, he then sets the toppings out on the counter in front of her. He grabs the pancake mix and a bowl and starts to get the batter ready.

"Okay, should we put anything in the pancakes? Like maybe chocolate chips?" he asks her.

Ella smiles and nods.

Clark has fun making numerous pancakes and lining them along the counter so that Ella can put whatever she wants on top of them. The two of them were having so much fun that neither heard Lois coming down the stairs.

"What's going on down here?" she asks with a smile.

"Mommy, we're making pancakes," Ella exclaims.

"I see that. Are you helping?" Lois asks. She runs her hand down the back of Ella's hair and then kisses the top of her head. Ella nods.

"She's been a big help," Clark says.

"I made this one for you," Ella says, holding a plate that might have a pancake underneath all of the whipped topping, syrup, strawberries, bananas and chocolate chips.

"Wow…it looks - awesome. Thank you, baby."

Ella smiles proudly and goes back to work on the rest of the pancakes.

"Which one are you going to eat?" Lois asks, curiously.

"This one," Ella says pointing to a pancake with bananas and whipped topping.

"What about, Cl…..um daddy? Which one is his?"

Clark stills at the stove when Lois says daddy. His heart felt like it stopped beating for a minute. He smiles, trying not to let the girls see.

"Um, daddy, which one do you want?" Ella asks, surveying the rest of the pancakes.

Clark has to take a deep breath to keep his emotions in check before turning around. He brings yet another pancake over.

"Which one do I want? Hmmmm let me see. I think that one looks good."

Ella nods and pushes the plate toward him.

"Lois, if you'd like a side of plain pancakes, here you go," Clark winks at her.

Lois' heart flutters a little with that gesture. "Thanks, but I'm actually ok eating this," she nods down at her plate.

Once the three of them finish eating, Lois stands up and starts to clean up.

"Your mom left early for Metropolis, didn't she?" Lois asks.

"Yeah, she said she had an early meeting. I can help you with that," Clark says, standing next to her.

"No, it's ok. You made breakfast."

"Mommy can I go outside and pway?" Ella asks, hopping down off of her stool.

Lois turns to her.

"Yes, but you need to go upstairs, clean your face, brush your teeth and then change into your clothes, okay? I laid them out on the bed for you."

Ella nods and runs up the stairs.

Lois turns back around to the sink and Clark stands next to her with his back to the counter.

"You did a great job with her," he says, looking at the towel in his hand. "She's a wonderful little girl. You're a good mom."

Lois feels herself blush. "Thanks, Smallville. I actually wasn't sure what kind of mother I was going to be, but I can't take all the credit. She's a great child. So mild mannered…." she chuckles. "I wonder where she gets that from?" she asks, glancing over at him.

He smiles and turns his head to look at her. They stare at each other for a few seconds.

"I can see your spunk in her, though."

"Oh yeah, we can butt heads with the best of them," Lois nods and goes back to washing dishes.


	10. Chapter 10

Thanks for the continued feedback. I have to admit, I'm terrible at leaving feedback sometimes, which, as a writer, I should know better. It really brightens my day when I read the comments. LOL

Just a reminder, this story is already finished. I will get cheesy with Clark as a father, sometimes, I just can't help it. LOL I plan on doing one-shots once I've posted the whole story to continue exploring this version of these characters.

**Surprise Return**

_Kent Farm - same day…._

While Ella plays with Shelby outside, Lois keeps an eye on her while working on a story on her laptop on the porch. Clark works in the barn but pokes his head outside once in awhile to see what Ella's up to.

Lois looks up from the laptop when she hears Ella's belly laugh. She smiles as she watches Ella run around the side of the barn, with Shelby following her. Clark hears the laugh and walks outside, smiling as he wipes his hands on a towel.

Suddenly, they hear Ella scream. Lois puts her laptop aside and jumps up, running as fast as she humanly can. Clark, with his super speed gets there first.

Clark's heart stops when he sees Ella laying on her side on the ground. Her face, winced with pain.

"Ella!" Lois screams as she runs up to them. "Is she okay?"

Clark x-rays Ella from head to toe, looking for any broken bones.

"She seems to be fine. Ella, what hurts?"

Ella just stays on her side and continues to cry. "Mommy…."

"I'm here, baby. You have to tell us what hurts," Lois says, gently scooping her daughter up into her arms.

Ella grabs onto Lois' neck and buries her face into her hair and continues to cry. Lois turns and sits down on the bale of hay. Clark squats down in front of them, touching Ella's back.

"Come on, baby, you have to talk to me. What hurts?" Lois starts to rock them back and forth.

Ella shakes her head.

"Nothing?" Lois asks, in disbelief.

"Nuffing," Ella sniffs, her crying subsiding.

Lois looks at Clark.

"How did you fall?" Clark asks.

Ella moves her head a little so she can see Clark. "I was cwimbing up the hay."

"This one, your mommy is sitting on?" he asks, patting the hay.

Ella shakes her head no and sniffs again. "Up there," she points up to the highest bale of hay.

Lois reaches down and wipes Ella's tears away with her thumb.

Clark looks up at the tallest bale of hay and sees that it's close to 6 feet off the ground. That's a pretty long fall for a 3 year-old.

"Clark," Lois says…..both of them thinking the same thing.

"I know," Clark says. "Ella, can I take a closer look at you?"

Ella nods and sits up a little. Both Lois and Clark look her over more closely. There isn't a mark on her body.

"Does it hurt?" Lois asks, once again.

Ella shakes her head and gets off Lois' lap.

"All better," she smiles. She runs back around the barn toward the house and continues to play with Shelby.

Lois lets out a sigh of relief and lowers her head into her hands.

Clark touches her back and stands up.

"Should I say it?" he asks.

Lois shakes her head. "No need….how old were you when your powers started to show?" she asks, looking up.

"Some of them, not until I was in high school but the basic ones….like speed and strength came pretty early."

"And basically being shock resistant?"

He nods. "Yeah….I was young. We'd have to ask my mom to be sure."

Lois nods and stands up, brushing her jeans off.

"Okay then…."

"Lois," Clark says, stopping her from walking away. They're standing pretty close to one another. "It doesn't have to be a bad thing. I mean, she fell 6 feet and didn't hurt anything."

Lois bites her lower lip and then nods. "Yeah, but that kind of thing will raise eyebrows at day care….I guess I just need to talk to your mom and get some pointers," she shrugs before walking back to the porch.

Clark watches her and feels helpless. He's not sure what's going through Lois' mind right now.

He walks over to the porch but hears a cry for help with his super hearing. He stops and listens closely. Lois gets the idea of what is happening and she smiles to herself.

The father of her child is a hero….a super hero.

"Lois…." he starts.

She shakes her head. "Go."

He super speeds into the house, changes into his new costume and flies to his rescue destination.

"Wonder if I'll ever get used to that?" Lois asks herself. She notices the sky getting darker. "Come on, baby, lets go inside. It looks like it's going to rain."

Ella jumps up and runs to her mom.

_Watchtower…._

Chloe stands at one of the keyboards, typing away when she hears a familiar whoosh.

"Hey, Clark," she says, without even looking.

"Chloe," he acknowledges. "I wanted to give you my new contact information."

Chloe looks up from the keyboard. "Okay," she walks over to her desk to find something to write on but Clark hands her a card. "Oh, thanks. So, you've been off the radar for the last 24 hours. Everything okay?"

He nods and a soft smile forms on his lips. "Yeah. I went to the farm to visit my mom and Lois was there…."

"Oh?" Chloe asks, her eyebrows raised in curiosity.

"Yeah…she told me about Ella," he beams, not able to hide his smile anymore.

Seeing his big smile warms Chloe's heart. She was afraid, since his training with Jor-El, she wouldn't get to see the human side of Clark Kent much anymore.

"Really? Well….congratulations," Chloe shrugs.

"Thanks," Clark says. He picks up a business card off of Chloe's desk to keep his hands busy. "I can't believe I'm a father," he says, shaking his head. "I never thought it would happen….she's so," he stops trying to think of the right adjectives.

"Amazing?" Chloe replies. "Ella is an amazing, wonderful little girl," she smiles and nods. "She's loved by many so I don't want you to start feeling guilty that you weren't there for her, either."

"I know," Clark nods. "I know, but I wish I had been there. I've missed so much already."

"Clark," Chloe says, touching his arm. "Yes, you've missed _some_ milestone stuff but, you have the rest of your life to make it up, right? You can be there for the rest…."

He nods and bends the corner of the card he's holding.

"Her first day of school…her first date…"

He lifts his head. "First date? She's not dating until she's 30," he says.

Chloe chuckles. "And how is Lois?" she asks, knowing that this will be an adjustment for her cousin.

His eyes search the floor. "She seems to be okay. Ella and I made her breakfast this morning and she seemed to be fine. But then…."

"Then what?"

Clark sets the card down and looks up at Chloe. "Ella fell off of a bale of hay…it was pretty high up and she was upset and crying…"

"Is she okay?"

"Yeah," Clark nods. "I scanned her and nothing was broken or fractured. In fact, there wasn't a mark anywhere and she said nothing hurt. I think it just scared her more than anything."

"How high did she fall?"

"Probably about 6 feet."

"Clark!"

"I know. Lois didn't seem too thrilled about it…"

She gives her friend a sympathetic look. "You have to keep in mind, she didn't find out about who you are until after she told me she was pregnant. Have the two of you talked about that, yet?"

He shakes his head.

"I mean, it was a lot for her to wrap her head around. She falls for you, you leave, she finds out she's pregnant and then finds out you have super powers and are from another planet? It scared and confused her. There were times when we weren't sure…" She stops herself. This isn't her story to tell, it's Lois'.

"Times when what, Chloe?" Clark asks, taking a step forward.

"You and Lois just need to talk through this whole thing. She just probably has a lot of emotions running around inside of her."

He nods. "Yeah, you're right."


	11. Chapter 11

**Surprise Return**

_Kent Farm - same day…_

"Mrs. K," Lois starts.

"Hmm?" Martha asks, looking up from the newspaper she's been reading. She pulls her reading glasses off. It's storming outside and Ella is upstairs taking a nap.

"When did Clark's….um, abilities start to show up?" she asks, leaning forward.

"Oh, almost right away we knew something was different. I think it's when he kept falling and wasn't hurting himself. Then he'd do something that should have cut his skin and it didn't, or if it did, it would heal quickly. So he was a toddler."

Lois bites the corner of her bottom lip and nods.

"Is Ella…." Martha starts.

Lois dramatically leans back into the couch. "Yeah, I think so. She fell this morning and she should have at least had a bad bruise from the fall, but there's nothing. She said nothing hurt even though she was crying."

"She was probably scared."

"Yeah….most likely. But Clark and I thought she was hurt. He x-rayed her, which I can't believe I just said that out loud," she chuckles, "but he said she was fine," she shrugs.

_Watchtower…._

"Thanks, Chloe. I am going to do one more fly over the city and then head back to the farm," Clark says, heading to the doors.

"So, where are you going to be living?" Chloe asks before he gets too far.

He turns around to face her. "I'm not sure, yet. I start back at the Planet on Monday. I have a whole new look to really differentiate myself from this," he says, gesturing to his current outfit. "I guess for now, I'll stay at the farm, until I figure out what I'm going to do."

Chloe bites back a smile. "That's a good idea. You know, I bet there's an apartment open in Lois' building. That way you could be near Ella…"

He cocks an eyebrow. "That's a thought. Thanks."

She watches as he takes off.

_Back at the farm…._

"Mommy!" Ella screams from upstairs. Lois runs up the stairs as quickly as she can.

"What is it, sweetie?" Lois asks, sitting next to the little girl, on the edge of the bed.

Ella throws herself into Lois' arms.

"I'm scaywrd." Ella shuts her eyes so tight.

"Scared of what? Did you have a bad dream?" Lois asks, playing with the back of Ella's hair.

Ella shakes her head no and when a clap of thunder happens, she jumps and squeezes Lois even tighter.

"Oh, the storm scared you. Yeah, we don't hear all these scary storm sounds in the townhouse, do we?"

Ella shakes her head.

Clark comes into the house through the kitchen door.

"Hey mom," he says when he sees his mother. He already changed back into jeans and a t-shirt in the barn.

"Hi Clark. How did everything go today?"

"Good," Clark nods. He looks around the living room. "Where are Lois and Ella?"

"Upstairs. Ella had a bad dream or something. She'll be fine," she says with a wave of her hand.

Clark looks concerned and runs upstairs. He stops outside the door when he hears Ella ask, "Is daddy coming back?"

"Yes, of course he is. He just had to go to work," Lois says.

Her voice sounds so soothing.

"Okay," Ella sniffs. "Can he have dinner wif us?"

He can hear the smile in Lois' voice when she answers. "I'm sure he will if he gets off work in time. What should we ask Grandma to make tonight?" Lois asks, swiping the bangs away from Ella's forehead.

"Personally, I've been dying for pizza," Clark says as he enters the room.

"Daddy!" Ella exclaims.

Lois has a huge smile on her face, but it doesn't rival Clark's right now.

"Hi pretty girl. Did you have a bad dream?" he asks, sitting on the other side of Ella.

Ella pouts and shakes her head. "No."

"The thunder was scaring her. Living in the city, the storms are a little more muffled than they are out here," Lois explains.

"Ah," he says with a nod of his head. "Well, maybe if we went downstairs we can get away from some of the noise, huh?"

Ella smiles and nods. Clark stands up and Ella holds her arms out for him to pick her up, so he does.

Lois follows them down the stairs.

"Gwandma, we want pizza," Ella demands….then she adds, "pwease."

Clark chuckles and tickles Ella's tummy.

"Pizza, huh?" Martha asks, amused. "Pizza Hut or Smallville Pizzeria?"

"Oh, I love Smallville Pizzeria," Clark nods, looking at Ella who just smiles.

"Does that sound okay, Lois?" Martha asks.

"Sure," Lois shrugs before going to the living room.

"Ella, come over here with me so you can help me pick out what pizza we want," Martha says, waiting for Clark to set Ella down. She takes the little girl's hand and leads her over to the kitchen counter.

Clark watches Lois. He sees her wipe her cheek before sitting down on the chair closest to the window.

He goes to her and sits down in the chair across from her.

"You okay?" he asks, leaning forward.

"Uh huh….why wouldn't I be?" she asks, looking out the window.

"I don't know….that's why I was asking. You don't seem okay and it looked like you were wiping a tear away. What's wrong?'"

"There's just been a lot to process in the last 24 hours, you know?"

He nods. "More than anyone," he smiles shyly at her.

She looks up and smiles back. "Yeah, I guess you do. I'm sorry. You have more to deal with than I do…"

"Lois, it's not a competition."

"I know."

They sit there silently for a couple of minutes.

"I guess we need to decide what to do?" she asks softly.

He's not sure exactly what she means so he stares at her and lets her finish.

"You can see Ella anytime you want, you know that?"

He slowly nods. "Thank you."

"Are you going to live here?" she asks, sitting up a little straighter.

"For now. Until I figure out what I'm going to do," he says, watching her closely.

She nods and looks down at her clasped hands.

"I start back to work at the Planet Monday."

"Oh?" she asks, looking up at him.

"Yeah. I know you're office is on the fourth floor now, right?"

She nods.

"I might have to start back down in the bullpen, I don't know yet," he shrugs.

She watches him closely. How many people get to see this side of the flying super hero?

"Speaking of the Planet…..do I get an exclusive interview with this new hero in town?" she smirks.

He looks down and smiles. "Maybe."

"Or are you going to write your own story, hot shot?"

"We are getting hyan pizza!" Ella screams as she runs over to Lois and Clark. She throws herself at her mother.

"Ugh," Lois says, catching her. "Hyan, huh?"

"It has pineappew," she nods.

Clark chuckles. "Hawaiian…." he figures out.


	12. Chapter 12

**Surprise Return**

_Monday, the Daily Planet_

"Perry, I understand. Believe me, no one wants an exclusive with this flying blur more than I do," Lois says before closing the door to her bosses office.

She straightens out her skirt and rolls her eyes. Clark just needs to agree to do this with her. They can create their own persona of who this mega man is.

Uber guy.

Fantastic…no, she thinks, shaking her head.

She doesn't notice Clark waiting inside her office because she's concentrating on a new name for him.

When she does notice someone out of the corner of her eye, she doesn't realize it's Clark.

"Can I help you?" she asks, shuffling through some papers on her desk.

"Well, I thought now would be a good time to start on my story," he says, smiling at her.

She looks up from her desk and practically gapes.

"Wow," she says, rounding her desk to get a closer look at him.

He's wearing a white dress shirt and grey tie but it's the hair and glasses that really change his look. There's also something different about his demeanor. It's almost less…confident.

"Is that a good wow or a why in the hell do you look like that, wow?" he asks, eyeing her out of the corner of his eye as she circles him.

She can't help herself, she runs her hand across the back of his shoulders.

"No, it's good. It's definitely a disguise. I had to do a double take."

He nods and straightens his tie.

"Okay, Mr. Incredible, have a seat and we can get started," she says, pulling a chair out across from her desk. She shuts the door to her office looking both ways outside her office before doing so.

"First, we need to figure out what to call you," she says, taking a seat behind her desk. "Any ideas?"

"Why don't we just continue with the Blur?" he shrugs.

"Clark….that's so 4 years ago," she says with a wave of her hand.

He smiles. This is the Lois he was used to. The self confident reporter. But, he had to admit, he didn't mind seeing the vulnerable mom he saw a couple of days ago.

"Okay. Well, my family's symbol on my suit looks like an "S"."

She nods and thinks about it. She writes down a few things. When he tries to see what she's writing, she holds her tablet up so he can't see yet.

"Now, we need to decide if we mention that you were the Blur and have had more training? Do we act like you just showed up?" she asks, sitting back in her chair.

"I want to be as honest as I can be without freaking people out."

"Okay," she nods, writing a couple more things down. "Do we mention all your powers or only the obvious ones? I don't want anyone to be able to use them against you." She taps the end of her pen against her lips.

"Oh, well, maybe just the ones people have seen already. Like speed, strength and flying?"

"Okay, so I'll leave out super breath, heat vision and x-ray vision," she nods, writing it down. "And whatever else I don't know about, yet."

They go over a few more things.

"I think that will do it. Thank you for your time," she says, putting her pen down.

"Do I get to read it before it goes to press?" he asks, standing up. He straightens his tie as he does.

"Maybe," she shrugs. "Trust me, Clark. You're going to love it."

She gives him a reassuring smile.

"Oh, well, I'm sure I will, it's just…"

"No, no. I want you to be surprised."

She gets up from her desk, rounds it and gently pushes him out the door.

"Okay, but…." he starts but she's already closed the door in his face. "That was rude," he says but he can't be angry with her. It's Lois.

There was one thing he wanted to mention so he knocks on the door and tries to open it. She has it locked.

"Lois….I need to ask you a question," he says, trying to keep his voice down so no one else on the floor hears.

She opens the door only slightly. "Yes?"

"I wanted to know if you and Ella wanted to meet me for dinner tonight?" he asks, hopefully. He pushes his glasses up on his face with his middle finger.

She makes a sympathetic face. "It's Top Model night. We always get Chinese food and watch it on Mondays."

He blinks in surprise. "Oh, okay…."

"I mean…you could join us if you wanted. It's not going to be a lot of fun for you but…"

"I'd love to. I'll bring the food."

"Great. You remember what I like?"

He nods.

"Good."

"Oh wait….what does Ella like?" he asks before she can close the door again.

"What her mama likes," she smiles coyly.

"Right," he says with a slight smile.

She winks at him and closes the door.

He smiles, shaking his head as he walks back to the elevator.

_Later that night at Lois' townhouse…._

"Baby, you need to quit jumping on the couch, please," Lois yells from the kitchen.

"When is daddy getting hewe?" Ella asks as she stops jumping and hops onto the floor.

"I don't know…soon. It was his first day at work so he might have had some paperwork to do or something," she shrugs.

"I thought he worked the uffer day?" Ella asks, confused.

"Oh, you're right. That was his other job."

Lois brings a couple of wine glasses to the table. She hands Ella a sippy cup of milk.

"Mommy, I don't need a sippy cup."

"With as much jumping around that you've been doing, yes you do," she says tapping the tip of her nose.

Ella let's out a scream when there's a knock at the door.

"Good Lord, Ella!" Lois says.

Ella runs over to the door and tries to open it, but it's too heavy.

"What did I tell you about opening the door before finding out who it is?" Lois scolds her.

Ella isn't having any of it. Her daddy is there with food and she's too excited.

"But it's daddy!" she says, jumping up and down.

Lois chuckles, checks through the peep hole just in case and unlocks the door.

"Who wants egg fu yung?" he asks, holding up the bags.

"Me, me, me, me," Ella says the word every time she jumps up.

Lois shakes her head at their daughter. "She's a little excited," she explains.

"Who wouldn't be for Chinese?" he asks. When he walks past Lois, he instinctively reaches over and kisses her cheek.

He didn't even realize he was doing it until it was over. He covered up his shock by taking the food over to the table.

Lois touches her cheek when he's not looking. It took her by surprise, too. She walks over to the table.

"Mommy, can you turn the TV on, pwease?" Ella asks.

"Honey, one thing at a time. Let's get your food, first," Lois says, scooping rice onto Ella's plate.

Clark chuckles. "Is she always this excited for this show?"

Lois shakes her head. "No, she's acting crazy because you're here. She's been like this ever since I told her when I picked her up from day care," she laughs.

"Really?"

She smiles and looks up at him. "Hey, you took your glasses off and unslicked your hair…"

"Yeah," he smiles a lopsided grin. "That's Clark Kent the reporter…this is just….."

"Smallville?"

He looks down at the plate in his hand before looking back up at her. "Yeah."

_Even later that night…._

"She's asleep," Clark says, joining Lois on the couch.

"You didn't have to stay in there with her until she fell asleep you know," she smiles before taking a sip of wine.

He shrugs and breaks open a fortune cookie. "I like watching her."

"That's okay. You're entitled."

Clark reads his fortune, pops part of the cookie in his mouth and nods.

"What does it say?" Lois asks, leaning over to read it.

He stares at her hair since it's the only thing he can see, while she reads the fortune.

"Very interesting," she says, looking up at him.

Their mouths are only a couple inches away from each others.


	13. Chapter 13

**Surprise Return**

_Lois' townhouse, same night_

"Seize the moment," Clark says, reading the fortune out loud.

Lois keeps staring at his lips. Their faces are still close to each others.

"In bed…" Lois finishes the saying with the words people add to fortune cookie fortunes to be silly.

"What?" he asks. He crumples the small piece of paper and tosses it on the coffee table.

She blinks and scoots back a little. "Never mind," she says with a wave of her hand.

"Lois, I've made a decision, but I wanted to make sure you're okay with it," Clark says.

She nods for him to go ahead.

"I'm going to look for a place in Metropolis."

"Oh. Makes sense. You'll be closer to work and there's more things to save here in Metropolis," she says. She's starting to feel the affect of the third glass of wine she's had.

"Um, well yeah but mainly to be closer to Ella."

"Right, of course," she says, sitting back a little. "Ella would love that."

He nods and then leans over a little. He rests his forearms on his knees and he turns his head to look back at her. "And to you…."

She bites her lower lip and takes another sip of wine. "Oh. Well, of course to me because Ella lives with me so you can't live close to her and not live close to me," she rambles on.

He smiles and looks down at his hand before looking back over at her. "Lois."

"Hmm?"

"You're rambling."

God that smile of his.

Oh yeah, she's definitely feeling the wine. She takes another sip.

"Right. I'll just shut up now."

They sit there in silence for a few moments.

"Um, so have you been up to the Fortress to tell Jor-El about Ella?"

Clark sits back, not too surprised that she knows about his father and the Fortress. "I haven't been to the Fortress since I found out."

"Will you tell him? I mean, you talk to him when you're there, right?" She sets her glass down on the table next to the couch.

"Yeah….when he feels like talking," he shrugs.

"I think it's important for him to know what you were missing while you were training with him for so long…."

Clark nods and stares at her mouth. "Yeah, maybe."

Lois notices the look in his eyes and she starts to feel it too. Her eyes keep looking from his lips to his eyes, back and forth.

Clark clears his throat. "I guess I should get back to the farm."

Lois snaps out of her trance. "Oh, right. Of course."

They both stand up. "Thanks for dinner," she says, shoving her hands in her back pockets.

"You're welcome. Thank you for letting me be a part of "America's Next Top Model" night," he smiles.

She smiles slyly. "Hey, we don't let just anyone in on our Top Model night."

"And thanks for letting me see her whenever I want," he says with a nod of his head toward Ella's room.

"It's okay, Smallville. I want you to be a part of her life. I won't keep her away from you."

"That means a lot," he nods and walks over to the door. She follows him. "Good night, Lois."

"Good night, Clark," she says while leaning on the opened door.

"I'll see you at work tomorrow?"

"Right…I have an important story I'm working on," she winks.

"I can't wait to read it. Bye," he says.

"See ya," she waves and shuts the door behind him. She sighs and leans against the closed door. "Oh, God, what those blue eyes do to me," she mumbles.

_The next day at the Daily Planet….._

"This is good, Lane," Perry says while reading Lois' story on Clark.

"Really?" she asks. Normally she's very confident in her work but this one is a little more personal and she doesn't want to give too much away.

"Yeah, damn good. And you said he met you for an interview? What, did you meet over coffee at the local café?" he chuckles.

"Not exactly…"

"I can just see it now, in his blue suit with the cape ordering a cappuccino…." he continues to chuckle, so she just lets him.

"We met up on the roof a couple times and I've talked to him by phone," she says, looking around.

"We'll put this on the front page when we get a photo…." he says, putting the article down.

"What? But I don't have a photo…."

"Get one," he says, moving on to the next story that's sitting on his desk.

"Perry…."

"Get Olsen to take one. If you can meet up with this guy up on the roof then ask him to pose."

"I don't think he's going to just let anyone take his picture like that," she says, now worrying that maybe she'll expose him too much with this story. She doesn't want to take any chances of people figuring out that he is Clark Kent, the father of her child.

"Then get an action shot. Check with legal, you'll probably need him to sign a waiver." He goes back to reading. "That's all," he dismisses her.

"Okay. Thank you for your time," she says, feeling like a first time reporter. She grabs her article and leaves his office.

She gets on the elevator to head down to her office. "Clark," she says in surprise when she notices he's on the elevator with her.

"Hi Lois. I was just taking care of some things up in HR. You just saw Mr. White?" he asks.

The elevator doors shut.

"Yeah. I showed him the article on you know who…"

He tilts his head a little. "You don't sound like that's a good thing. He didn't like it?"

"He loved it but he wants a photo to go with the story," she says, biting her lip.

"Oh," he says, giving one nod in understanding.

"I mean….it can be an action shot. That way no one would see…._his_ face. But they might want _him_ to sign a waiver. Not sure how I'll get that without a real signature," she says, looking at the piece of paper in her hands.

"What about, uh, _his_ Kryptonian name?" Clark asks.

"Maybe but I didn't include that in the article…..that _he's_ from another planet. I thought I'd leave that for the next installment…"

"Next one?" he gives her an amused look.

"Yeah, I thought maybe this could be a three part interview."

"Do I get to read the article before I agree to this?"

"You mean _he_?"

"Right," he corrects himself and pushes up his glasses. "Does _he_ get to read this before _he_ agrees to more?"

She thinks about it for a few moments.

"I tell you what. Come down to my office after lunch and I might let you read it. But, it would be really nice if this hero could make a save at lunch time, maybe in "The Square" where I'll be dining with Jimmy Olsen who will happen to have his camera ready to go?" Lois asks innocently.

Clark hides his chuckle. She is good, he'll give her that.

"You never know what might happen," he agrees.

The elevator doors open to the fourth floor. "See you later," she says over her shoulder as she gets off the elevator.

"See you," he says as the doors shut. "She is a handful," he says, shaking his head.


	14. Chapter 14

Woohoo, I took a day off of work today so I'll post twice today. Thanks again for the feedback. Your comments make me smile and sometimes crack me up.

**Surprise Return **

"_The Square" at lunch time…._

"Why are we here again?" Jimmy Olsen, photographer for the Daily Planet asks as he adjusts something on his camera.

"Just wait. I have a good feeling that something is going to happen. So be ready," she says, taking a bite of her hamburger, but her eyes are watching the sky.

Clark stands up on one of the roofs that overlooks "The Square". He can see Lois and Jimmy at the outside café. He looks around, waiting to see if there's any saving that needs to be done, but so far, no luck.

"Why doesn't someone get mugged or something," Lois mumbles.

"What?" Jimmy asks.

Lois shakes her head to say that it's nothing.

She turns back around in her seat and sighs. Suddenly, she hears a bunch of laughing at the corner of the street and then loud music from a car approaching. She turns her head to watch the group of girls. A couple of them start to dance to the music and they get a little carried away and one of them looses her balance and falls into the street. Lois jumps up when she sees the bus approaching. It's going too fast to stop.

By the time it's all said and done, there's a red and blue flash flying to save the girl, just as the bus tries to swerve a little. The girl is set back down on the ground and the red and blue flash disappears into the sky. Lois smiles and sees him standing on the roof of the building. His hands are on his hips and he nods to the girls who are clapping and screaming for him.

Damn he really looks good in that suit, she thinks. When she snaps back to reality she looks over at Jimmy.

"Please tell me you got that."

"I took a lot of pictures. Let's go back and see which ones turned out," he says, excitedly.

_Back at the Planet…._

Lois is not so patiently waiting in her office for Jimmy to show up with the photos.

"Damn it, Olsen, pick up your cell phone!" she yells into the phone before slamming it down.

"Whoa," Clark says, standing at the doorway. "Miss your lunch?"

She gives him an exasperated look. "You know damn well I had lunch….well, most of it. I'm waiting for Jimmy to show me the negatives of a certain someone."

Clark sits in the chair on the other side of her desk. "So, you had an exciting lunch?"

"You could say that."

"I heard there was a bit of commotion at "The Square"."

She cocks her head a little. "A bit."

He holds out his hand.

"What?" she asks.

"You said I could read the article if you got a picture of this guy…."

"I haven't seen proof, yet, Kent," she says, leaning forward.

"Ms. Lane," Jimmy says huffing and puffing his way to her door. "Oh, sorry. I didn't realize you had company. Hi CK."

"Hi Jimmy," Clark acknowledges.

"Did you get them?" Lois asks, standing up.

Jimmy stands on the side of her desk and looks over at Clark before showing her the photos.

"It's okay, Clark can see them."

"Oh, okay," Jimmy says, laying down 5 different shots. "What do you think? I think these were the best shots I got of him."

Clark stands up and the three of them stand over Lois' desk, staring at the pictures Jimmy took.

"Not bad," Lois says.

Jimmy blushes at the compliment.

"Yeah, I thought some of them turned out pretty good. These were the most clear. That guy is fast," he says, shaking his head.

"Clark, which one do you like the best?" Lois asks.

He swallows. "How about this one?" he asks, picking up one of the photos. "It's a good action shot."

Lois nods and takes it from him. She tries to picture it on the front page. "I like it. Let's go with this one. Thanks, Jimmy."

She signs off on the back of the photo.

"Okay, I'll send it to you so you can include it with the article," he says excitedly. "Bye CK."

"Bye, Jimmy."

Lois waits until Jimmy leaves the office and is out of ear shot.

"See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Lois asks.

Clark nods. "You were right. It didn't give away too much and I think it will look great on the front page…"

Lois bites her lower lip and takes a deep breath.

"So…..the article?" Clark asks, holding out his hand.

Lois picks up the piece of paper and hands it to him.

In big bold letters at the top is:

SUPERMAN SAVES THE DAYan article by Lois Lane

"Superman, huh?" Clark asks with a smirk.

"Yeah," Lois says hesitantly. "What do you think?"

Clark scans the rest of the article and nods.

"I like it."

Lois smiles in relief.

_Daily Planet, a couple of days later…._

Clark is reading Lois' article, trying to hide his smile at how proud he is of her. Her writing really has come a long way. Not that it was bad before, but he can tell how she has improved. She has more confidence in her writing.

"Lane wrote a good article, huh Clark?" Jeff, the guy who sits across from him asks.

He nods, smiling. "Yeah, she did."

"Didn't you guys used to date a long time ago?" he asks.

Clark takes a deep breath. "Yeah, a long time ago."

"What happened? I mean, she's hot. Even when she's yelling at people, she's hot," Jeff says.

Clark looks over the top of the paper at Jeff. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Oh, sorry. Sore subject, huh? She dumped you?" he asks, sympathetically.

Clark puts the paper back up so Jeff can't see his face and he rolls his eyes.

He hears bustling around the basement so he sets his newspaper down and sees Lois heading straight toward his desk. People must be congratulating her and complimenting her on the article because she's smiling and saying "thank you" a lot.

She sits on the edge of his desk, facing him. "So?" she asks, trying to keep her voice down.

He gives her a look that shows he's not quire sure what she's "so"ing about.

"The article…it looks good, doesn't it? With the picture and the headline?" she asks, glancing over at the paper sitting on Clark's desk.

"It looks amazing. Congratulations, Lois. This just might be Pulitzer material," he nods.

Her eyes get a little bigger. "Nah…." She reads the first sentence again and shrugs. "Maybe. We'll see, but I'm not holding my breath."

"Is there…..something else you needed or did you just come down here to see what I thought about the article…again?" Clark asks.

"Oh. Um," she tries to think of some other reason why she'd come all the way down from the 4th floor to see Clark. "Just wanted to give you a heads up that I might be going out of town on business soon."

Clark nods. "Oh. Okay. What do you do with Ella, usually?"

"Usually either Chloe or your mom watches her…."

He nods. "Makes sense."

"But I thought maybe you could this time?"

He looks a little shocked.

"I mean, it should only be for a couple nights, three at the most," she adds quickly.

"No, that's fine. It's great. I mean, yeah, it's not a problem."

She takes a deep breath and smiles. "Okay, good. I'll let you know more when I find out the details."

He smiles and watches her as she walks back to the elevator.


	15. Chapter 15

**Surprise Return**

_A couple weeks later….Ella's Day Care_

"You must be Mr. Kent, Ella's father?" Miss Claudia, the day care attendant asks as she opens the door.

"Sorry I'm late," he apologizes. While on his way to pick Ella up, a car accident happened right in front of him and he used his abilities to pry open the doors and save three people's lives. As much as he wanted to get to his daughter, he couldn't ignore that.

"That's okay. You didn't miss the cut-off," Miss Claudia says, letting Clark inside.

"What happens if I miss the cut-off?" he asks nervously.

"We lock the children inside all night," she teases.

It takes him a few seconds to realize she's joking so he chuckles.

"Come this way. Ella was coloring to pass the time. Ella, look who's here," Miss Claudia says once they reach the main room.

"Daddddyyyyy!" Ella exclaims, her coloring forgotten. She runs over to him and throws herself into his arms.

"Hey there, pretty girl," Clark says, giving her a squeeze.

"Bye Miss Claudia," Ella says as she and Clark start to leave.

"Bye, Ella. Don't forget to grab your bag on your way out."

"We going to Gwandma's house?" Ella asks once they're in the car. "Mommy packed my bag in case we did."

"Oh, uh, no. I didn't think we were….why, did you want to?" he asks, starting the car.

"No, it's okay," she shrugs.

"Your mommy gave me the key to your house, so I'll just stay there with you, okay?" he asks her, looking over his shoulder.

"Yayyyy!"

_Later that night…._

"Ella, I know you want to stay up but it's late and you have to go to daycare tomorrow, and daddy has to go to work," Clark says. He's sitting on the edge of her bed, holding the third book of the night in his hands.

"One more story, pwease," she begs.

"You said that last time. That was it, now good night," he says before leaning down and kissing her forehead.

She starts to pout and her lower lip quivers.

"Ella," he warns.

"I want mommy," she says, now with tears in her eyes.

"Ella, you know mommy is out of town for a few nights. Just two nights with me, and she'll be home."

"Can we call her?" she asks in between sobs.

He glances at the time. She's on the East Coast so it's an hour earlier there. "Okay, we'll see if she can answer the phone."

He picks up his cell and dials Lois.

"Smallville? Is everything okay?" Lois answers.

Clark is a little taken aback. "Yes, of course. Ella just wants to say good night. She misses you."

Lois looks at the time on her phone. "She's still awake? Clark, she should be sleeping by now. It's going to be really hard to get her up and going in the morning and she needs to be at day care no later than 8.…"

"I know, Lois. I have all of your instructions. She asked me to read 3 books, I just lost track of time."

"Okay…put her on."

Clark smiles and hands Ella the phone.

"Hi mommy."

Clark sits back, watching his daughter's face as she talks to her mother. Lois has been the only parent she's ever known up until now. Of course she'd feel more settled talking to Lois.

"Uh huh….yeah we had fingers," Ella giggles.

Clark smiles. She must have asked her what she had for dinner…chicken fingers.

"I will. Okay. I am mommy, I pwomise. Wuv you too. Here, daddy," she says, handing Clark the phone.

Ella lays down and pulls the covers up to her neck and closes her eyes.

"Good night, daddy," she whispers.

"Good night, love," Clark says, kissing her forehead once again.

He makes sure the night light is on before turning off the light and closing her door. He takes his phone into the living room with him and sits on the couch.

"Hey….thanks. Whatever you said to her worked," Clark says.

"It's a mom thing," Lois says.

Clark here's laughing and music in the background.

"Working hard?" he teases.

Lois rolls her eyes. "Dinner with a client. Perry drug me along to help with winning over the advertisers."

"Oh okay. I won't keep you," he says, even though he was secretly hoping they could continue to talk.

"I can call later….if you want. If it's not too late," she adds.

"I'd like that. I mean, if it's not too late for you," he adds.

"We'll see. Good night, Smallville."

"Good night, Lois."

He tries really hard not to keep staring at his phone, waiting for her phone call for the rest of the night but sleep finally wins. He lays his head down on her pillow and breaths in her scent and smiles before drifting off to sleep.

_The next morning…._

"Come on, baby, wake up," Clark says, gently nudging Ella.

"Mmmph," she whines before turning over.

"Ella," he says a little more sternly. He checks the time. He thought he'd be nice and let her sleep 15 minutes after Lois' note "suggested" he wake her.

"No," she says.

"You have to get ready for daycare. Daddy has to go to work."

She doesn't move.

"Okay….I'm bigger than you," he says, standing up.

He picks her up but she starts to kick and scream. "No daddy….no!"

"What has gotten into you?" he asks.

"Tiwerd," she says, collapsing against his chest.

"I know you're tired but we have to get going."

He sets her down but she tries to crawl back into bed.

Okay, now she's just being stubborn.

He hears his cell phone ringing in the other room but doesn't have time to answer it.

"Come on….you need to try to go to the potty," he says, lifting her again and taking her into the bathroom.

Once he got her to day care, at 7:58, he got a chance to look at his cell phone at work.

Lois.

He steps into the copy room to call her back.

"I'm seriously trying not to panic," she answers. "Why didn't you answer the phone?'

"We were getting ready…" he says, hoping that appeases her.

"Okay, but you could have called while she was eating breakfast or something."

"Lois, this is my first time getting her ready for day care and it's not my house, so I had to look for things. It just took time, but she got there on time and everything's good."

She sighs. "Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you."

"It's okay. This is actually giving me more of an appreciation for you than I already had," he smiles.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Oh hey, I've got to go…another meeting. I'll call you when I get a break. Bye."

"Bye."


	16. Chapter 16

**Surprise Return**

_The next day (Saturday)….Lois' townhouse_

"Daddy, look what I made," Ella yells from her bedroom.

Clark walks in to her room and looks at the mess of blocks and legos she's left all around but then his eyes are drawn to the creation she's made on her bed.

"Wow….what is that?" he asks.

Ella shrugs. "It's a fort."

He steps over some blocks to get closer. It almost looks like the shape of Jor-El's fortress, but how would she know what that looks like.

Clark hears the door to the townhouse open and close.

"Hello," Lois says.

Ella's face lights up and she gasps. She climbs down off of the bed and runs through the blocks to run to her mommy.

"Mommmmyyyyy," she screams.

Lois' smile couldn't get any bigger and she leans down and picks up Ella. Holding her so close.

"Hi baby girl. I missed you so so much," she says, closing her eyes.

Clark smiles at the sight in front of him. He never thought he could feel this way.

"I missed you, too, mommy."

She sets Ella down and looks up at Clark. "Hi," she smiles at him.

"Hi," he returns the smile. "See….she's still in one piece."

She tilts her head. "I had no doubt. Otherwise, I wouldn't have left her with you," she says before picking up her bag and heading toward her room.

"You guys have fun?" Lois asks in general.

"I'll take that for you," he says, taking her bag from her. "You spend a little time with Ella. I know you missed her."

"Thanks," she says, with a mild surprise in her tone. She sits down on the couch and pats the spot next to her. "So, what did you and daddy do?"

"He read me stories…"

Lois nods.

"And we pwayed pwetty pwetty pwincess."

Lois' eyes got a little bigger and she had to stifle a laugh. "I bet he's good at that game, huh?"

Ella smiles and nods. "He was funny."

Now Lois lets herself chuckle a little….her daughter's smile and giggling, contagious.

Lois bites her lip when Clark walks back into the room.

"What?" he asks.

"Nothing," Lois shrugs. It's almost like she sees him in an even different light. And frankly, she feels even more drawn to him than she was before.

Could she really try to make it work with Clark again?

He had hurt her so much before. He didn't trust her enough to tell her anything before he left. She felt betrayed and abandoned.

She looks down before looking back at Ella.

Clark notices the change in Lois' demeanor.

"Lois?"

"Mommy, come look at my fort," Ella says, jumping off the couch and pulling at Lois' arm.

"Your fort?" Lois asks as Ella pulls her to her room. She gives Clark a questioning look when she walks past him.

He just sheepishly smiles and shrugs.

Lois tries not to look at the mess on her daughter's floor and only notice the creation on her bed.

"Wow….good job. What kind of fort is it?"

Ella walks over to her bed. "It's like a house. Maybe daddy lives here," she smiles up at Clark.

Lois looks over at Clark and then back at the "fort".

"Very nice," Lois nods. "You keep building your "fort", I'm going to talk to daddy," Lois says, pulling Clark along behind her.

"Lois," he says, stopping her when they get into the living room. "I know you've looked at the Kryptonian journal, but has Ella seen it?"

She shakes her head. "No, not that I know of. I mean, she's been in the loft a few times looking through your things so maybe…. That's the fortress isn't it?"

Clark nods.

"And she's calling it the "fort". It's like she knows…" Lois says.

"It's probably nothing," Clark dismisses.

Lois stares at him for a few seconds, trying to figure out what he's thinking. "Yeah, you're right."

She walks over to the kitchen and gets a glass of water. "You want anything?"

"No, thanks."

Lois takes a drink. "So, everything went well?"

Clark nods. "Yeah. Everything was good. I got her to day care on time yesterday and she went to bed last night earlier than she did the night before…it only took me a day to get the swing of things."

Lois smiles at him. "Good."

"It's tougher than I realized, though. I'm sorry you had to do this by yourself this whole time," he says, shaking his head.

"Clark…..you can't keep apologizing."

"I know, I just…don't know what to say," he says, looking up at her.

"Just be there for us….I mean, her from now on," she says, reaching out to touch his hand.

He slowly smiles at her and squeezes her hand. "I will. I promise."

Lois nods and takes a deep breath. "So….any plans for the day?"

Clark looks at the time. "I should probably patrol for a little while today. I wasn't able to much in the past couple of days…"

Suddenly Lois felt guilty. "Oh right. Yeah, of course. It didn't dawn on me that…" her thoughts trailed off.

How could Superman be a dad? At least a single dad, even if it was for a couple of days. He would ignore his duties to save people because he was taking his daughter to the park?

He could see the conflict on Lois' face.

"Lois…I know what you're thinking."

"I didn't even think….I shouldn't have asked you to watch her, not without backup of some kind," she says, walking to the living room.

"Lois, I wanted to watch her. It's okay."

"No. It's not," she says, shaking her head. "How many lives could you have saved or criminals caught and put in jail while you were watching her?"

"Hey," he says, turning her around so she's facing him. He pulls her close and looks deeply in her eyes. "I learned a long time ago, I can't feel guilty about the people I can't or don't save. I need to be happy about the ones I do. Lois, my mom and dad taught me what it's like to be human and feel human emotions. There's not enough training that Jor-El could have ever put me through to make me forget that. I want to be a father to our daughter and if that means shutting off my," he smiles, "Superman duties for part of a day, then so be it. Okay?"

Her lower lip quivers and she nods, not breaking eye contact. "Okay," she whispers.

He touches her chin with his thumb. "Okay."

"You want to meet us somewhere for dinner? I don't feel like cooking."

Clark hasn't moved away from her. He keeps staring between her mouth and eyes. "I'd like that."

"Seven?"

She feels that familiar stirring in her gut. Oh no…..she needs to pull back from the Kent charm.

But he's so close and his body feels so good next to hers…

"Let's make it 6:30 and we'll meet at Zodiac?"

She bites her lower lip and nods.

"Mommy, my fort crashed," Ella says from the doorway to the hall.

Lois pulls away from Clark.

"Oh no….that's terrible. You think you can rebuild it?"

"No," Ella sighs.

"Okay, well just try to build something else. That's the fun with playing with blocks, right?"

"Ella, I'm going to go for now but I'll see you at dinner, okay?" Clark says before Ella heads back down the hall.

"Okay. Bye daddy," she replies almost with a sad tone in her voice.

Clark walks over to Ella and picks her up.

"I had a lot of fun. Thank you for being such a good girl," he says, gently squeezing her.

Ella nods. "You're welcome."

Lois smiles.

Clark sets Ella down and she runs back down the hall. Lois follows Clark to the door. He picks up his bag and hoists the strap over his shoulder.

"See you a little later," Lois says, leaning against the wall right next to the door.

Clark nods and in a bold move, he leans down and gently kisses her on the lips. He lets the kiss linger just enough.

"Until later," he barely whispers.


	17. Chapter 17

**Surprise Return**

_After dinner - same night…._

"Thanks for walking us to the door, Clark, but this is a secure building….we would have been fine," Lois smiles.

"I know. I just wanted to tuck Ella in."

"Oh, can you wead me another story?" Ella asks, jumping up and down.

"Sure," Clark chuckles.

"Lord, she's been spoiled already," Lois says, rolling her eyes. Clark chuckles.

As soon as they enter the townhouse, Lois takes off her high heels.

"Ella, you need a bath tonight before you go to bed," she says, as she heads toward her bedroom to change into her t-shirt and sweatpants.

"Okay. Daddy, come wiff me," Ella says, dragging Clark to the bathroom.

She proceeds to take her shoes and tights off and then her dress.

"Don't make it too hot," she says with her hands on her hips.

"Oh, okay," he says, realizing he should have been running the bathwater already.

"Ella, do you need me to run the water for…..oh, daddy's got it, huh?" Lois asks from the doorway of the bathroom.

"Yeah, we got this," Clark says, squeezing bubble bath into the water. "This will be just enough bubbles."

Lois studies his backside as he proceeds to stir the water up. He's in dress pants, his dress shoes and his dress shirt with rolled up sleeves. She notices his tie is hanging on the door knob.

"Hmmm I should have you make me a bubble bath one day if you really are an expert at bubble making," Lois says.

"Just say when," Clark says, not turning to look at her, but he's smiling. He likes thinking about Lois and bubble baths.

"Well, if you two are okay, I'm going to go chill out by the TV," Lois says. "No longer than 20 minutes, young lady."

"Okay, mommy," Ella says as she makes her Barbie doll splash in the water, getting the front of Clark's shirt wet.

Lois stifles her chuckle. "Okay, well, you two have fun."

"Gee thanks," Clark says, not realizing he'd end up taking a bath as well.

_Twenty-Five Minutes Later…._

"I'm going to bed," Ella says when she runs into the living room and plops down on the couch next to Lois.

"Wow, look at you…all ready in your PJ's and your hair is dry," Lois says, ruffling Ella's hair.

"Daddy helped me," Ella smiles.

"I see. He's a good daddy, isn't he?" Lois leans down and whispers to her.

Ella nods.

Lois reaches over and gives Ella a quick kiss on the lips. "Good night, sweetie pie. I love you."

"Wuv you," Ella says before jumping back down off the couch and running into the hallway.

After another 30 minutes, Clark joins Lois in the living room. She has all the lights off but one in the kitchen and the TV is on.

"What are you watching?" Clark asks, unrolling his sleeves.

Lois shrugs. "I don't even know. Some Lifetime movie. Thanks for getting her bath and into bed," she says, looking up at him. "Do you have to go?" Then she feels guilty. She knows he'll stay if he asks but he probably should be patrolling. He hasn't been Superman for a few days.

"I can stay a little while longer," he says, sitting down on the couch next to her.

"I mean, if you have to go…." she says, studying his face in the dim light.

"I'll patrol later tonight, if that's what you're worried about," he says, looking over at her and smiling.

"You sure?"

He leans back and wraps his arm around her shoulder.

"Yes, I'm sure."

They sit like that for a few more minutes. Lois scoots down a little and snuggles into his side. This feels nice. She's not going to overanalyze it. Just enjoy it.

"Is this okay?" Clark asks as his fingers start to gently skim her arm.

"Mmhmm," she nods.

Another few minutes pass by.

"Lois…"

"Hmmm?"

"What was the pregnancy like? I mean, since you were carrying a baby that was half-Kryptonian…."

He feels Lois stiffen under his touch a little.

"Dr. Hamilton watched things closely."

"Were there complications?"

She sighs and straightens up, leaving his arm to fall back to his side.

"Why are you asking me now?" she asks, studying her fingernails.

He shrugs. "Chloe mentioned something the other day…"

She sits up and leans forward a little, staring straight ahead.

"There were times when we weren't sure…." she stops when tears come to her eyes.

"Sure about what?" Clark asks, leaning forward so he can try to see her face.

She shrugs. "I don't know. We weren't sure what was going on. Emil couldn't figure some of the test results out. There wasn't anything out there like what he was seeing. There were suggestions that I….."

She takes a deep breath and chokes back a sob.

"Lois?" Clark asks, almost as if he's in pain.

"No one was sure if I would be able to handle it….the full term pregnancy or the delivery," she says, shaking her head.

Clark gets angry and stands up. "How could I be so careless?" he asks as he starts pacing.

"What?" she asks.

"Lois….we should have…no, I should have used protection. I was careless in not thinking about the consequences and what it could mean to you…."

Lois stands up and stops him from pacing. "Clark. I was careless, too, remember? It takes two."

"But you didn't know I was from another planet. If I was human, that would be another thing…."

She shakes her head. "No, you don't get to do this. You don't get to beat yourself up over something that you couldn't predict or weren't there for. I was the one who chose to carry Ella to term. With Chloe and Oliver by my side," she says, her voice cracking. "It was the only thing I had left of you," she says softly.

"Lois," he says, sympathetically. "I'm s…."

She stops him by putting her finger up and shaking her head.

"Right," he nods. He cups her cheek and his fingers splay through her hair. "You know how much more that makes me love you? I didn't think I could feel anything more deeper than I did, but to know that people were trying to talk you into…"

He can't bring himself to even saying it out loud.

"And you didn't listen to them. You could have died."

"I would have died without having Ella," she says, tears falling down her cheeks.

He leans down and gently tastes her lips. He pulls her closer and opens his mouth a little to capture her lips again. This time she lets herself respond. She opens her mouth a little and lets his tongue tease hers. The kiss lasts a little longer, but she's the one who pulls back.

They rest their foreheads together, trying to catch their breath.

"I love you, too. Just so we're clear on that," Lois finally says.

Clarks smiles and pulls away, his hands still cupping her face.

His eyes look toward the window when he hears a cry for help nearby.

"We have a lot to still talk about," he starts.

She nods. "It's okay. Go," she says, motioning with her head. "I'll be here all night." She grabs his face and kisses him again. "Go."

He starts to unbutton his collar as he super speeds out the door.

She sighs. "What the hell just happened?" she asks herself.

She sits back down on the couch and tries to figure out what this means for she and Ella.


	18. Chapter 18

**Surprise Return**

The next morning, Lois rolls over in her bed and bumps into something. Well, someone. She opens her eyes because it's too big to be Ella.

"Clark?" she whispers.

He opens his eyes and smiles at her.

"Hi," he says.

"How long have you been here?" she asks.

"A few hours. You were sound asleep when I got back so I didn't want to wake you."

"Oh," she says, sitting up.

Clark smiles at her pajamas with the cars and trucks on them.

She looks down at herself and then rubs the sleep out of her eye. "Sexy, huh?"

"You're always sexy, no matter what," he says, leaning up a little to try to kiss her neck, but he mostly gets her hair.

"Gee, thanks. I don't feel very sexy right now," she yawns.

She smiles when he starts to move her hair out of the way and pull her collar down a little.

"You're awfully frisky this morning," she says.

"Mmmhmm."

"Save a few lives last night?"

"A few," he says, taking a moment to stop kissing her neck.

She turns her head so he can kiss her lips this time and he gets the hint.

"Mommy," Ella says as she walks into the room.

Lois and Clark stop kissing and look at their daughter.

"Daddy!" Ella exclaims.

She climbs up the bed and jumps in between them.

"Nice, you get the better reaction," Lois says.

"I'm hungwy," Ella says, sticking her lower lip out.

"Pancakes?" Clark asks.

"Yeeaaahhhh," Ella says as she starts to bounce up and down on the bed.

Lois grabs her arm to stop her from the jumping.

"Okay then," Clark says, getting up out of bed. He reaches over and grabs Ella and acts like she's an airplane as they leave the room.

Lois sits back on the bed and runs her fingers through her hair. "Am I visiting the future?"

She grabs her cell phone next to her bed and turns it on to look at the date. No, not the future.

She shakes her head and figures she'll just go with it so she puts her slippers on and joins her daughter and Clark in the kitchen.

"Chocolate chips, chocolate chips, chocolate chips," Ella is chanting when Lois reaches the other room.

"I don't even know if I have any chocolate chips," Lois says, rubbing Ella's back.

"Noooo," Ella pouts.

"I don't see any. I'll be right back," Clark says and before Lois can say anything, he's out the door and back with a bag of chocolate chips.

Lois closes her mouth and Ella smiles.

"Clark," Lois warns.

"We can't have pancakes without chocolate chips," he explains.

"Ella has to learn that she can't always have what she wants. Sometimes you have to compromise."

"Lois, that's a big word for a 3 year-old," Clark says.

Clark hears something in the distance. "Uh Lois…."

She's beginning to recognize that look right away now. "Go, I think I can flip a pancake."

"I'll be right back," Clark says to Ella before kissing her on the top of her head.

He speeds off.

"Where is daddy going?" Ella asks.

"He'll be right back," Lois says. "He had an emergency at work."

By the time Clark gets back, Lois and Ella are sitting at the table, enjoying their pancakes.

"Save any for me?" Clark asks as he enters the townhouse. He runs his fingers through his hair to try to salvage it after it got messed up during flight.

"There's plenty," Lois says.

She studies Clark. How can he change in and out of his costume so quickly without her being able to tell. If his costume is on under those clothes then where is the cape?

"Everything okay?" Clark asks when he notices Lois is looking him up and down.

"Yeah. I was just wondering something but I'll ask later," she says, motioning to Ella with her head.

Clark's eyebrows raise in question and intrigue. "Can't wait."

Lois realizes what he's thinking and she rolls her eyes. "In your dreams."

"Uh huh…." he says before taking a bite.

After finishing breakfast, cleaning up and everyone cleaning up themselves and getting dressed, there's a knock on the townhouse door.

"Who could that be?" Lois asks before looking through the peep hole. "Chloe?"

She opens the door.

"Hi."

"Hey….what brings you by?" Lois asks. She lets Chloe in.

"Oh, well, I thought I'd stop by and get Ella so she and Henry could play. Yeah, a play date," Chloe says, looking around the room. "She is here, isn't she?"

Lois chuckles. "Yes…..she's getting dressed with daddy's help," she whispers the last part.

Chloe's smile brightens. "Oh…..so Clark's here. So, everything is good?"

Lois bites her lower lip. "I don't know what they are. I just want to let him spend as much time with Ella that he can…."

"You make it sound like he's going to leave again," Chloe says.

Lois starts to say something but Ella and Clark join them.

"Aunt Chloe," Ella says, running over to Chloe to give her a big hug.

"Hey there Mini-Lo. You want to come over to my house and spend the day playing with Henry…..and Uncle Ollie?" Chloe adds since her husband ends up being a bigger kid than either two.

"Okay," Ella says.

"Hi Clark," Chloe says. She gives him a knowing smile, which Lois misses.

"Chloe….what a nice surprise."

"Yeah….you too. You stop by for breakfast?" she asks.

"You could say that."

"Ella, why don't we get your tennis shoes," Lois suggests.

They both leave the room.

"So, things seem to be going well," Chloe says to Clark.

"I think so," Clark nods. "I hope so. Chloe, thanks for doing this. I need to get things squared away with Lois and it's hard to do with Ella around."

"It's okay, Clark. We love having Ella over. If you need her to spend the night, we already have a clean change of clothes at our house and we can take her to day care tomorrow," Chloe winks at Clark.

Clark tries not to look embarrassed and starts to say something but Lois and Ella come back in the room.

"Ready?" Chloe asks.

"Bye mommy," Ella says, hugging Lois' legs.

"Bye baby," Lois says, kneeling down to give Ella a better hug. "Be good for Aunt Chloe but give Uncle Ollie hell, okay?"

Ella giggles. "Okay mommy."

"Lois," Clark says, not believing that she'd talk to their daughter that way. "Ella, you have fun," he says when Ella comes over to him. They hug and Clark walks them to the door.

"Bye daddy."

Chloe smiles and touches her chest. She hadn't seen Clark with his daughter yet and it's very sweet to see.

"Thanks, Chlo," Lois waves before the door shuts.

Clark turns to Lois and is going to say something when Lois beats him to it.

"Well, I'm going to go to the Daily Planet and catch up on things so I'm not so far behind tomorrow."

She turns and goes into her bedroom to change when Clark is left standing there kind of dumbfounded.

This isn't going the way he planned.


	19. Chapter 19

**Surprise Return**

Clark decided to let Lois go ahead and go into work. He had to come up with a different plan. But maybe this was a much better plan.

Lois had been working in her office for a few hours when she hears a whooshing sound and a couple of papers fly off of her desk.

"What the…" she starts but smiles when she sees a rose and a note left in front of her. She shakes her head and reads the note.

_Meet me on the roof in 10 minutes…_

_Love,Clark_

"What is he up to?" she wonders.

Ten minutes later, she heads up to the roof. She's greeted with a beautiful garden-like setting with a table for two in the middle of it.

"Clark," she gasps.

"I wanted it to be romantic, but since it's still daylight, I figured this was the best way."

"It's beautiful," she says, looking around. She walks over to one of the rose bushes and breathes in their fragrance.

"I hope you're hungry," he says, holding a chair out for her.

"I'm starving," she says, now that she thinks about it.

They both take a seat and Lois looks at the plate in front of her. "My favorite things," she says, looking up at him.

He smiles and nods.

"Clark, you shouldn't have done this…" she says, shaking her head.

"Why not?"

"I….I mean, shouldn't you be…" she glances up in the sky.

"Lois….it's okay. I'm going to try to balance Superman time with Clark Kent time. I patrolled this morning. I was out last night, as you know…."

That made her feel a little better.

"Are you going to keep feeling guilty when I spend time with you?" he asks, realizing that maybe this is what this is about.

"I'll try not to," she smiles. She's happy that he just said he wanted to spend time with HER.

"Don't. I love spending time with you."

"I love spending time with you, too. Clark….what is this? What are we doing?" she asks, getting straight to the point.

"I thought we were having lunch," he teases.

"You know what I mean. I don't want you to feel like you need to be with me in order to spend time with Ella. We can make it work without having to be a couple…."

Suddenly, he's nervous and he searches her face. "Is that what you want. To just be Ella's parents?"

She wasn't prepared to feel such emotions…not at lunch so she tries to hold them back in, with not a lot of luck.

"No, but I don't want you to feel obligated."

Clark gets up out of his chair and kneels down next to hers. He takes her hands in his. "Lois…I don't feel obligated. I told you last night that I was in love with you. I loved you before I left for training and I love you even more now. I want to be with you….and yes, our daughter."

His declaration unleashed the emotions she was trying hard to hold back.

"Really?" she asks, pretty much weeping. Lois Lane doesn't weep.

"Really," he nods, he reaches for her face and captures her lips in a kiss.

When they pull apart, she rests her forehead against his.

"I love you too," she says.

He smiles and gives her one more peck on the lips.

"Now, we better eat before this gets cold," he says, standing up and going back over to his seat.

Lois dabs her face with her napkin and sighs.

They spend most of the lunch catching up on things that happened in each other's lives when they were apart.

Clark tells her more about his training and more about what he knows about Krypton and his heritage.

Lois tells him about her pregnancy and when Ella was born.

"So, Oliver tried to video tape it?" Clark chuckles.

"Oh yeah….I think he was trying to lighten the mood since we weren't sure how everything was going to go. He knew I'd "get mad" and throw him out," she smiles at the memory.

"But the labor….was normal?" he asks.

Lois nods. "Yeah…actually, I wasn't in labor that long. Maybe that's a good thing about having a half-Kryptonian baby. But everything else seemed to go normally."

She smiles remembering the first time she held Ella in her arms.

"I have pictures of right after she was born."

"I'd love to see them," he nods and smiles.

"We can go now. Unless you had something else you needed to do…"

"No. The rest of my day is all about you….and us," he smiles.

She returns the smile and looks down almost feeling giddy.

"Why don't you go back to your office, finish things up and I'll clean up here. I'll meet you in your office."

She nods and stands up. "Okay."

He stands up too and walks over to her. He pulls her close to him and she puts her hands on his shoulders. They stare at each other for a few seconds before leaning into each other's lips. The kiss starts off gentle but now that they're starting to explore their emotions with each other, their sense of urgency in their kiss is felt.

"I better get going," Lois says, breathlessly.

"Right," Clark agrees, but is slow to let her go.

She smiles back at him right before she opens the door and goes back downstairs.

They spend the rest of the afternoon looking at pictures and Lois shows him videos that she has of Ella.

She looks over at him and sees a conflicted look on his face.

"Does this make you sad?" she asks, touching his face.

He smiles and shakes his head. "No….a little. It makes me happy to see what a wonderful life you've given her. I just wish I could have been there…."

She nods in understanding. "We can stop watching…"

He shakes his head and kisses her. "No, I want to see as much as I can."

_A couple hours later…._

"Chloe, are you sure?" she asks, looking up at Clark. "Oh okay….well, thank you. Tell her I love her and that I'll pick her up from daycare tomorrow. Okay. Bye."

She hangs up the phone.

"Chloe is going to keep Ella overnight," Lois says in surprise.

"That's nice of her," he smirks.

Lois tilts her head and looks at Clark.

"Did you plan this?" she asks.

"Don't know what you mean," he shakes his head.

He closes his eyes when he hears a cry for help in the distance.

"Gotta go….but I'll bring back pizza on my way back," he says, giving her a quick peck on the mouth before running out the door.

"Sometimes I think he plans that," she says to herself.

Suddenly, she's nervous. She goes into her room and looks at her sexy lingerie situation.

Pretty much non-existent.

Wait….she goes into one of her drawers and finds the blue lace nightie she wore the first time they made love. Perfect.

The evening continues on pretty much the same as the day had. Clark brought back pizza. They ate sitting around the coffee table, watching TV and talking.

Lois filled him in on a couple of big stories she wrote while he was away. One of them she went undercover for. Ella was almost two and she had to have Chloe and Oliver take care of her for a couple of weeks.

"Those were the hardest two weeks of my life," she says. "I thought I'd be able to handle it. Well, I also didn't realize the story would take that long. I thought I'd be undercover for a few days…but it's my best story."

"I'd love to read it."

Lois nods and takes a sip of wine.

"I'll email you a copy."

She glances up at the clock.

"Ugh….it's getting pretty late. We've got work tomorrow."

He nods and sets his glass down.

"Yes, we do…"

They sit in silence for a few moments.

"Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back," she says getting up from the floor.

She runs to her room and shuts the door. She goes into her bathroom to freshen up a bit and brush her hair and teeth. Then she puts on the blue nightie. Running her hands down her sides, she studies herself in the mirror.

"Okay Lois…."

She goes back to the living room and Clark's not there.

She looks over to the kitchen and he's not there either.

Her shoulders slump.


	20. Chapter 20

Here's where the "T" rating comes in.

So, I've realized it's not a good idea to start reading someone elses story (a really good author) when you're posting your own story, especially when your story is done. I just reread this chapter and was like, well, that's dull. LOL I did add a couple more things so maybe that will help. Sorry about the lack of love scenes, I don't write them well. Use your imagination :).

Oh and thanks again for the great feedback.

**Surprise Return**

Lois sits down on the couch. She's disappointed.

He must have gotten a "call".

She takes a deep breath and yawns. Maybe she'll just rest her eyes for a bit, until he gets back.

When Clark comes back an hour later, he smiles when he sees Lois laying on the couch. Her head is against one of the throw pillows but her legs are still in front of her like she was sitting on the couch.

He goes over to her and picks her up.

"Hmmm…..Clark?" she asks, opening her eyes.

"Who else would it be?" he teases.

She throws her arms around his neck as he carries her to her bedroom.

"What time is it?" she asks.

"Late," he answers.

He gently lays her down on her bed and lets his eyes sweep up her body. God, she's beautiful.

She doesn't let go of his hand.

"Don't go," she whispers.

"I wouldn't dream of it." He leans down and kisses her. She lets his tongue enter her mouth.

God, this woman. He doesn't know how he could feel anymore human than he does right now.

He wants her.

"You look amazing," he whispers when he pulls away.

"Do you recognize it?" she asks, stretching a little.

"Yes," he smiles. "You still look as beautiful today as you did then…."

She smiles and shifts underneath him. "Make love to me, Clark."

He takes off his shirt and jeans and lays down next to her.

They continue to kiss and their hands explore each other's bodies. Slowly they remove what clothing they both have on.

Clark rolls over on top of her, they're breathing is heavy. There's no stopping at this point. Neither want to.

"Lois….protection."

She smiles and touches his face. "I'm on the pill. It should be okay."

He kisses her and slowly enters her, soliciting a moan from deep within Lois' throat.

They move together like a dance…it's not like last time. Last time Clark knew he was going to be leaving for training. For him, it was the first time and last time in his mind. This time it feels more like it's the start of something new…..for both of them.

_The next morning…_

Lois' alarm goes off.

"Oh God," she says, blindly reaching over to turn it off. "Don't want to go to work," she mumbles.

Clark chuckles and turns to his side so he's facing her.

"We did have a very very late night," he says, running his hand up and down her bare back.

"Maybe we can call in," Lois says, pushing the hair from her eyes.

Clark shakes his head and kisses her shoulder.

"Come on….lets take a shower and get ready," he says, getting out of bed and heading to the bathroom.

Lois sits up and smiles, watching him walk away.

"That woke me up," she says.

For the rest of the day it was pretty hard for Lois to concentrate on anything but the night before.

She'd find herself staring at the same page, blushing. This is how Chloe found her.

"Hey cuz…."

Lois blinks and looks up from the computer screen.

"Chloe….hey. What brings you by?"

Chloe chuckles because she can tell she caught her cousin thinking about something that was making her blush. "That good, huh?"

"What?" Lois asks, trying to act innocently.

"Did you have a nice night?" Chloe asks, trying to act innocent.

Lois smiles. "You could say that…"

Chloe smiles and nods. "Good. So, does this mean that Lois Lane and Clark Kent are officially a couple again?"

Lois tilts her head at her cousin. "Maybe." She takes a few seconds before continuing with her answer. "I honestly don't know what we are….I mean, do we date? Do I have him move in with us? Would that confuse Ella? Maybe we should just date for awhile and eventually he can move in with us….or we'd get mar…." she stops herself.

Chloe's eyes get bigger.

"What am I doing?" Lois asks with a sigh.

"It's okay, Lois. You're entitled to wonder all of those things…all of them," Chloe says, reaching over to touch Lois' hand. "You need to do what you think is best for all of you…not what you think other people will think is best for you. If that means moving in together now, then do it."

Lois smiles and nods. "Thanks. Now, I just need to figure out what that is…"

"Talk to Clark. See how he is feeling about all of this. I'm sure it's a little overwhelming for him, too. He's probably worried about what you're thinking, too…."

_Later that evening….Lois' townhouse_

"Ella, how would you feel if daddy moved in with us?" Lois asks during a commercial break of America's Next Top Model.

"Is he?" Ella asks excitedly. "Can he, can he, can he?"

Guess that answers that question.

"Maybe. We just need to ask him."

As if almost on cue, Clark knocks on the door and opens it with the key Lois gave him.

"Daddy," Ella says, jumping up from the couch and running over to him. "Will you move wiff us?"

Clark picks her up and smiles at her. "What?" he asks, looking over at Lois who has her head bent down and is covering her eyes.

"Ella," she says shaking her head. She needs to remember that her daughter doesn't have any filters, yet.

"Move with us," Ella says again.

"You moving?" Clark asks, a little confused.

He sits down next to Lois, and Ella sits on his lap.

Lois looks over at him. "No….not now at least. I….." she's not sure how to approach this now that hurricane Ella has approached this in the wrong way.

"Oh daddy, down," Ella says when she notices her program started back up. She goes over and sits in front of the TV.

"What's going on?" Clark asks quietly.

Lois studies her hands. "I've been thinking."

Clark nods.

"And I just asked Ella what she'd think if daddy moved in with us…..well, she was excited about the idea and then you walked in so she went for it…" Lois says, shaking her head. "Sorry."

Clark is amused and overwhelmed. He wanted to figure out new living arrangements with Lois but wasn't sure how to approach the subject.

"I wasn't going to have it just thrown out there like this. I was going to discuss everything with you. I didn't know if we should date first or take things slowly….."

"Lois."

She looks up at him.

"How do _you_ feel about it?" he asks.

She takes a deep breath and looks him straight in the eye.

"I'd like it if you moved in with us. I want you to."

He smiles.

"I'd like it too."

"Really?" she asks.

He nods and leans over and kisses her.

"I mean, it's not too soon?" she asks once they pull apart.

"Do you think it's too soon?" he asks. He takes her hand in his and distracts her by rubbing his thumb gently up and down the back of her hand.

"I think there's a part of me that worries that it is…."

He looks disappointed.

"But the bigger part of me says who cares? I know I love you, I know I want to be with you. Ella loves you and obviously wants you to be here," she smiles over at their daughter. "So….as long as you will always love us and never hide things from me…."

He smiles and nods.

"Then I feel like it's the best decision for all of us," she says, letting out a breath.


	21. Chapter 21

**Surprise Return**

_The next weekend…._

"I need a bigger closet," Lois says, staring at the small amount of room she made for Clark's things.

"Oh, is that the problem?" Chloe asks. "Not the fact that you need less clothes?"

"Hey, whose side are you on?" Lois asks.

"Maybe you need a bigger place? You know there's this adorable house for sale on our block."

Lois raises her eyebrows in curiosity.

"Hmmmmm."

"Hmmm what?" Clark asks. He notices the small amount of room that Lois has made for him. "That's it?"

"Clark, maybe we should go look at this house that's for sale by Chloe," Lois nods. "Hopefully it has his and hers walk in closets."

"So, we get a bigger place to accommodate your wardrobe?" he asks.

"Well, it's in a good school district."

"Ella won't be starting school for another couple of years…"

Lois tries to think of other reasons.

"It's fifteen minutes closer to your mom's…."

He gives her a "come on" look.

"I thought you liked living in the city," he says, hanging his dress shirts in the closet.

"I do…..but it was mostly for geographical reasons. You know, work close to home, which is close to Ella's day care. That way I could spend as much time with her as I could," she shrugs.

He looks over at her and then at Chloe. "I guess it won't hurt to take a look at it but I'm not making any promises."

Both girls do a little jump and Chloe says before walking out of the room, "I'll have Oliver call our real estate agent."

"Thank you," Lois says, reaching up to kiss Clark's cheek.

"Mmmhmmmm," Clark says, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Think about it….it would be better to move before Ella gets settled in a school."

"I already said we'd look," he chuckles.

"Lois, are these the bags of clothes that are going to charity?" Oliver asks when Lois and Clark emerge from the bedroom.

"Yeah. Oh and there's one more in Ella's room."

Clark looks around. "Seven trash bags full and that's the only amount of room left for me in your closet?" Clark asks.

"Most of this stuff was in storage bins under my bed. They're winter clothing."

"What have I gotten myself into?" Clark asks, gaping at all the bags.

Lois punches his arm, which makes Chloe and Oliver laugh.

"You're sooooo funny," Lois sarcastically says.

"We'll take this down to Goodwill and pick up lunch," Chloe suggests.

"Sounds good…thanks," Lois says.

She closes the door behind them.

"Alone at last," she says, leaning against the door.

"Do you mind if I get new pots and pans," Clark says going through the kitchen.

"Pots and pans?" Lois asks. "Smallville….we're alone. Our daughter is at your mom's. Oliver and Chloe will be gone for around an hour…."

Clark comes back to the living room. "We still need to figure out where everything is going."

Lois rolls her eyes. "Okay…no, I don't mind you getting new pots and pans."

"And the bathroom," he says, making a face.

"What about the bathroom?" she asks, putting her hands on her hips.

"It's pink."

"You want to redo the bathroom?"

"Yeah, just repaint it and get new towels and stuff?"

Lois nods. "Okay. Anything else?"

"The bedspread…."

"Now wait a minute…."

Clark chuckles and walks over to her. She swats his arms away but he still grabs her and pulls her to him.

"I'm just kidding. There's nothing wrong with that bedspread."

He leans down and starts to kiss her neck.

"I guess we should have discussed some things before this weekend, huh?" she asks, running her fingers through the back of his hair.

"We've been busy this week."

Lois published the second part of her Superman series in the paper.

"Yeah," she sighs.

"Any feedback on the Superman article?" he asks, when he notices she's not responding to his kisses.

"Mostly good," she says.

"But…."

"The next installment is what's going to freak people out," she says biting her lip.

"Because you're going to tell everyone that Superman is from another planet?"

She nods. "Yeah. I keep debating on whether or not to mention that little tidbit."

He thinks about it. "If you're not sure, then wait. I'm sure there will be more articles about Superman."

"Well, it's your life, what do you think?"

He tugs at her hand to pull her to sit down on the couch.

"It's who I am. I'd rather you just not make something up about why I have my powers…which, I know you wouldn't do," he adds. "So either tell everyone I'm from Krypton or just don't tell people where my powers came from."

"I'm just afraid that someone will try to set a trap and run tests on you. There are insane people out there, Clark," she says with all seriousness.

Clark cups her cheek. "I know. But you don't have to worry about me. As long as no one knows about green Kryptonite then I should be fine."

She searches his eyes. "I know, I just worry…."

"And I love you for that," he says before placing a kiss on her lips.

She doesn't let him pull away and deepens the kiss.

"How long did you say Chloe and Oliver would be gone?" he mumbles against her mouth.

She smiles and continues the kiss.


	22. Chapter 22

**Surprise Return**

_Three Weeks Later…Daily Planet…._

"Lane!" Perry White belts out. "Are you out there?"

Lois stops pacing the hallway outside Perry's office and enters.

"I'm here," she says. She straightens out her jacket.

"Where the Sam Hill is your next Superman article?" He slams a pen down on his desk. "Did he get cold feet and quit meeting with you?" he asks, looking up over his reading glasses.

Her eyes get bigger. "What? No…..he's just been busy, that's all."

He pushes back from his desk a little bit. "You're the only one he seems to want to talk to. Maybe _you've_ been busy….with your new living arrangements?" he asks out of curiosity. He never cares what his reporters are doing on their own time, but he's heard rumors about Lane and Kent.

"Living arrangements?" she asks.

"Yeah. I heard you have a new roommate. Maybe that's what's keeping you from meeting up with Superman again. You afraid that Kent will get jealous?"

She hides her smile by looking to the side. "Um, no sir…that's not it at all."

If he only knew.

"You're daughter okay?" he asks out of concern.

"Ella? Yes…she's fine."

He cocks an eyebrow at her. "Well, since we're on the subject. How does Kent feel about becoming and instant father?"

Okay, now she's confused. "I'm sorry….instant father?"

"Well yeah. He starts dating you and moves in and all of a sudden he's got a toddler he's taking care of…"

She grips the back of the chair she's standing behind. "Um, sir…..Clark _is_ Ella's biological father."

His eyebrows shoot up. "Oh. Well….that's good then."

"Um, yes sir."

"Anyway, back to the subject," he says with a wave of his hand. "Superman. Do you have anything else on him, we can squeeze a little bit of a story out?"

"Probably not enough for a feature….."

"What about for a teaser? You know, give the readers a little something in anticipation of the bigger story."

"Well…" She searches the room, not making eye contact with him.

"Lane!" he says, bringing her attention back to him. "What is wrong with you?"

She walks over and shuts the door to his office. She takes a seat in the chair across from his desk. "Sir…..there's more information but I'm not sure it's in the public's best interest….or Superman's for that matter, that I run it."

He squints his eyes at her. "Like what?"

She takes a deep breath and says it quickly. "He's from another planet."

She waits.

Perry raises his one eyebrow again. She didn't realize how often he does that.

Then he laughs. "He's what?"

"He's from a planet called Krypton."

"Never heard of it," he says, still chuckling.

"Well, that's because it was destroyed. His parent's sent him to Earth to save him. To save us, really."

He stops chuckling. She's serious.

"How did they send him….in a spaceship?" he teases.

"As a matter of fact…."

He leans forward at his desk.

"And he told you all of this? Why should we believe him?"

She shrugs. "I just do. When he lays it all out, it makes sense with the timing of everything. The meteor shower…."

He leans back in his chair, trying to soak this all in.

"But the thing is….if people find this out and they want to start experimenting on him or if they're scared because of this…."

"Yes?"

"I just don't want anything to happen to him," she says with a little bit of desperation.

He nods and thinks about this.

"Mr. White…"

He looks up at her.

"I'm just concerned. He's out there saving people….saving the world. Our planet. I just feel like we should try to protect him as much as we can."

"Let me think about this and I'll get back to you tomorrow," he says with a dismissal.

"Yes, sir," she says, standing up. "Um, Perry…..you won't tell anyone, will you?" she asks, nervously.

He shakes his head. "No, of course not. We'll discuss this tomorrow."

She nods and opens the office door. "Okay. Thank you."

She goes to her office and calls Clark. "Hey, can you come up to my office really quick?"

"Sure."

Within 15 seconds, he's at her door. She puts the receiver down.

"I didn't mean _that_ quickly," she rolls her eyes.

"What's up?" he asks, shutting the door behind him.

"I just told Perry that you're an alien," she says, letting out her breath.

"That _I'm_ an alien?" he asks, touching his chest.

"Well, Superman…..you know what I mean. He's pressuring me for the next article."

He sits down. "How did he take it?"

"What….after laughing in my face? He said he'd think about if we should run it or not."

Clark nods and chews his lower lip. "Well, we just wait then."

"You're awfully calm about all of this. If I would have thought this whole thing through, I never would have done the first segment."

"Lois, you don't mean that…"

"I mean, they're good articles, thanks to the subject," she smiles and he blushes, "but I had to have realized that we would eventually tell people where you're from."

Clark nods and then looks up at her. "Would it be different if I wasn't the father of your daughter?"

She blinks. "What? No…."

"You sure? I mean, if I was just some stranger who was flying around saving people and I gave you an interview and told you all of this….don't tell me you wouldn't have printed that I was from Krypton from the start…."

"Clark," she says, shaking her head but thinking about it. "I don't know. I mean, it's not just that you're Ella's father. I love you. I don't want anything to happen to you, not just because of Ella, but because of me…"

He sighs. "I know, I'm sorry," he shakes his head. "I'm just trying to think about this from a different angle."

"Maybe we should talk to the Justice League about this," Lois shrugs. "See what they think."

Clark nods. "I'll arrange for a meeting via satellite tonight."

She smiles and nods. "Okay, good."


	23. Chapter 23

**Surprise Return**

_Watchtower - Later that night….._

"I don't know about this," Oliver says moving to sit on the couch next to Lois.

Chloe watches Clark's expressions from her spot at the computer command station.

"Clark, how do you feel about it?" Chloe asks.

"I don't want to hide anything," Clark shrugs.

"We're talking possible world wide panic," Dinah says from one of the monitors.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Lois says.

"What happens if you do the next article without mentioning where he's from or how he got his powers?" Oliver asks.

Lois shrugs and stands up. "I've tried that, but aside from repeating the first two articles, I don't have much more to go on for the next article. Perry's on my case about this. I can keep talking about the countless saves but those are getting daily coverage already."

She walks to stand next to Clark, who has been keeping relatively quiet. She rubs her hand up and down his back.

"Look, the main reason why we're gathering here is to decide if this information gets out, what are we going to do to back Clark up?" Chloe asks.

"You know I've got your back," Bart says via satellite. "If you need me to spend more time in Metropolis, then I will…."

Clark softly smiles. "Thanks, Bart."

"I think we'd all do that," Cyborg agrees.

"So, is that the answer? Lois does the article, saying that Superman is from an extinct planet and we all take turns guarding our superhero's back for a few weeks?" Oliver asks.

"I should be fine, as long as no one finds out about the Kryptonite," Clark says.

Lois rests her cheek against Clark's arm.

"I'll just tell Perry that I'm not doing another full article. I'll run what I have," Lois says, throwing up her arms.

"What will that mean for your job?" Chloe asks.

Lois shrugs. "I'm not sure…."

"There's no way, Perry is going to let you go," Clark says, looking at her.

"It's okay if he does…I can always keep reporting somewhere," she tells him.

"Why don't we find out what Perry says tomorrow and then I'll send out the communication to the team on what we're going to do and what is happening….okay?" Chloe asks.

Everyone agrees and signs off.

"Clark, how do you really feel about this?" Oliver asks, walking over to Lois and Clark.

Chloe takes off her headset and joins them.

"I actually kind of want people to know. I'd like them to know that I was raised by humans since I was a baby but that my DNA is that of a Kryptonian. We'll figure out how to handle it as we go along…"

Lois looks away from him, not able to look him in the eye since they don't know what they'll be up against.

"Obviously not mentioning the meteor rock as your weakness….what about how you get your strength from the sun? Will that be mentioned?" Chloe asks.

Clark watches Lois. "I think it should be…."

Lois wipes a tear from her cheek and turns to face the group.

"We'll see what Perry says tomorrow."

She turns and walks toward the doors to leave.

"I'll talk to you guys tomorrow, thanks," Clark says to Chloe and Oliver.

They nod in understanding.

"This has to be so hard for her," Chloe says once they're gone.

"Yeah," Oliver agrees. "It's gotta be a bitch being involved with someone who has super powers and is from another planet…"

Chloe chuckles. "Nice, Ollie."

"What?" Oliver shrugs.

"You going to talk to me at all?" Clark asks as he and Lois walk back to the townhouse.

"I have a lot to think about," Lois says.

"You know, if you keep internalizing it, it will just make things seem much worse…."

Lois stops and turns to him.

"I don't want to loose you…."

He reaches for her. "You're not going to loose me."

He pulls her to his chest.

"We don't know that," she says, muffled against his chest.

"I could be," he looks around, "completely human and there would be a chance you could loose me…in a car accident or something else…"

She pulls away a little bit. "Yeah, you're right. But humans aren't flying around jumping in front of bullets and pissing bad guys off…"

He chuckles. "Good point. But I still think I have better odds."

She takes a deep breath and nods. "You're right. Let's go home to our daughter."

That makes Clark smile.

_At the townhouse…._

"Hey Macey," Lois says once they get inside the townhouse. "Was Ella okay for you?" she asks, looking around.

"Yeah, she's in her room playing," the teenaged girl says as she stands up and grabs her purse. "She's so easy going."

"Good…thanks again for being able to do this on such short notice," Lois says.

"Yeah, we appreciate it," Clark says, handing Macey money.

She stares dreamily at Clark. "You're welcome. Like I said, she's so easy to watch. Oh I didn't realize how strong she was," Macey says stopping at the door.

"Strong?" Lois asks.

"Yeah, she was playing with her blocks out there and a few of them went under the couch and she pushed that couch, with me on it, like it was the easiest thing in the world. I hope it didn't scratch the floor. She did it before I realized what she was doing," she says, apologetically.

"I'm sure it's fine," Clark says, opening the door. "Thanks for the concern, though."

Macey nods and smiles at Clark again

"Good night."

"Good night," Lois says watching her leave as Clark closes the door behind her.

"Did your mom keep a journal?" she asks.

"A journal?"

"Yeah because she's going to get tired of me calling her every few days when I need to figure out how to handle a new power…."

Clark smiles and walks over to her. "She doesn't mind you calling."

"That's not the point. She's showing super strength now," Lois says, pointing to the couch.

"Mommy! Daddy!" Ella yells when she comes into the family room and sees her parents.

"Hey Munchkin, did you have fun with Macey?" Lois asks.

Ella nods. "Yeah, she's nice."

"Yeah," Lois agrees.

Clark can tell that Lois is too busy thinking about what happened in front of Macey so he takes over.

"Ella, it's getting late, why don't you go brush your teeth and get changed for bed."

"Do I have to go to bed now?" she pouts.

"Not yet, just go get ready, okay?"

She nods and leaves the room.

"Lois…." he says, turning her around so she's facing him. "You've got to snap out of it."

"I'm just trying to figure out a way of telling her to keep these things to herself."

"We'll sit down with her tomorrow, after work and explain that she needs to be careful around other people when she moves or lifts things…."

"Or when she falls? Do we have to tell her she needs to act like she's hurt and scream?" Lois shakes her head. "I don't want her to have to do things like this…."

"What other choice do we have at this point?" he asks.

She feels defeated. "Yeah, I guess."

"It will be fine. I'm sure the same things happened with me and my parents and I turned out fine."

She smiles at him. "Yeah, you're okay."

He chuckles and gently kisses her lips.

"I don't know how much more of this stress I can take….being the mother of a super powered toddler, being a reporter AND trying to make sure my…..boyfriend doesn't get abducted because he's an alien," she says, collapsing on the couch.

Clark studies her for a moment. She is right. That's a lot of stress.

"If there's anything I can do…." he says, sitting next to her.

She touches his face. "You're sweet, but I'm okay. I was just exaggerating for a minute. I'll be fine."

"Promise?" he asks.

She nods.


	24. Chapter 24

**Surprise Return**

_One Week Later - The Daily Planet…._

SUPERMAN, FROM KRYPTON

Lois reads the headline and sits back in her office chair.

It took her two days to submit the story to Perry once he and everyone else decided to go through with it.

There's a knock on her office door.

"Hey," Lois says, when she sees a fellow reporter at her door.

"Hi, I just wanted to say, good story….a little freaky but good."

"Oh thanks. I wasn't sure how everyone would react when they found out," she confesses.

"I think it was good that you told the truth. I mean, you included more information to back his story up and there's no way there are any other…."things"….out there like him so I think you did good," the reporter nods.

"He's not a "thing", he's a…he."

"Right," he nods. "Anyway, good job. Can't wait to read more," the reporter says before walking away.

"Thanks," she mumbles.

Now is the time for her to start worrying. The story is out and now Clark could be in danger, well more danger from people who are scared of who he is or just want to know more. She says a quick prayer that he stays safe.

"Getting a lot of good feedback, Lane," Perry says from the doorway, startling her a little.

"Are you? Good."

"Yeah. I think people are actually relieved that it's not just another meteor freak running around. This alien has a real story…."

She smiles.

"You okay?" he asks.

"Yeah. I just hope we did the right thing…"

"He agreed to it, right?"

"Well, yeah."

"Then let him handle whatever people throw his way. I think he'll win in the long run….oh," Perry says as he turns to leave and almost bumps into Clark, "Kent. You must be proud…."

Clark looks at him questioningly and pushes his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. Then he realizes he's talking about Lois.

"Oh, yes sir. Lois is a wonderful reporter."

Perry chuckles and pats Clark on the shoulder before walking away.

"How are you doing?" Clark asks, taking a seat across from Lois' desk.

She sets the paper down. "Good," she lies.

He tilts his head and waits.

"Okay….I'm just okay. I just hope we did the right thing."

"Lois, when are you going to quit worrying about this?" he asks, he reaches over the desk and takes one of her hands in his.

"Probably never," she weakly smiles at him.

"Look, from what I've heard down in the basement, everyone is intrigued by this article. Not scared."

"I know," she takes a deep breath. "I'm going to turn a new leaf and just get over it." she sits up straighter in her chair.

Clark smiles. "That's the spirit."

Clark hears an explosion in the distance.

"I'll see you later," Lois says.

He kisses the back of her hand quickly and speeds off.

_A few weeks later…_

A few weeks go by and everything seems to be business as usual.

"Now for the closets," the real estate agent says as she shows Lois and Clark into the master bedroom of a house they're looking at.

Lois gasps. "Clark!"

Clark tries not to roll his eyes.

"This would be hers," the real estate agent says opening a door to a large walk-in closet. "And this one is usually his…" she shows them the other door.

"I don't know, Lois…it might not be big enough," Clark says sarcastically looking inside the closet that is as big as Ella's room right now.

"Smart ass," Lois says. "It's perfect." She smiles looking over at him.

They finish looking at the rest of the house and meet back up in the living room.

"We've figured our budget," Clark says looking at the listing he's holding for the house, "and I don't know…this is about $20,000 more than we can spend."

"But Clark, we can talk them down….that's the fun of house hunting," Lois says, wrapping her arm through his.

"I tell you what….put in a bid and we'll see what the owners come up with," the real estate agent says.

Clark still looks hesitant.

The real estate agent's phone rings. "I'll answer this and let the 2 of you talk," she says before leaving the room.

"Clark," Lois pleads, practically batting her eyelashes.

"What do we need with all of this room? It's like 3 times bigger than what we've got now."

"Right, which is way too small…."

"Lois, this is a 4 bedroom house…."

"Room to grow," she smiles.

"Grow?"

"Oh…..I, never mind, I just assumed…."

"Lois…."

"Well, we can make one of the rooms an office. I think we'd make good use of that. And the other room could be a play room for Ella…..and of course there's Ella's room and our room…."

He's still a little in shock of the fact that she hinted she wanted another child.

"Sorry about that," the real estate agent says when she re-enters the room. She can tell she walked in at an uncomfortable moment.

"That's okay. I'll email you with our bid and we can start from there," Clark says.

"Wonderful," the real estate agent says.

_Later that night…._

Lois and Ella are snuggling together on the couch.

"I miss daddy," Ella says.

"Me too. But he had an emergency at work," Lois sighs.

Clark had been gone for most of the day, once they got back from house hunting. Lois kept talking in the car, not letting Clark get a word in edgewise. She didn't want him to bring up the baby subject again.

"I hate mergency," Ella says before yawning.

"So do I. Hey, your daddy and I are looking for a new house…..a bigger place to live. Wouldn't that be fun?"

"Wiff a pool?" Ella asks, excitedly.

"Um, probably not….but maybe down the road," Lois says, not sure of that answer.

"Yayyyyy."

She sounds excited but her droopy eyes say otherwise. "Okay mini-me, it's time for bed."

"Noooooo," Ella says, barely keeping her eyes open.

"Yeah right, you'll be asleep by the time your head touches the pillow," Lois says, picking up Ella.

She holds her closely to her and breathes in her scent. Her baby girl. Getting so big.

"Pretty soon I won't be able to hold you, you'll be so big."

Ella nods against Lois' shoulder.

"Your bed, mommy…."

"Oh honey," she says, thinking about how tired Clark will be when he gets back.

"Pwease…."

"Okay….just this once," Lois says, turning toward her bedroom.

Lois was right, by the time she laid Ella down, she was already asleep.

She stares at her daughter for a few moments.

She hadn't really thought about having another child. She's not sure why that slipped out today. Maybe she really does want another baby with Clark. Deep down.

She leans down and kisses Ella's cheek and then heads back to the family room.

A few hours later, Clark quietly enters his bedroom and removes his shoes. He's made a habit of changing out of his Superman outfit before he gets home so no one keeps seeing Superman visiting this building all the time.

When he sits down on his side of the bed, someone rolls over and kicks him. He smiles without even looking…Ella.

He quickly changes into pajama bottoms and a T-shirt and moves Ella so she's in between he and Lois. He lays down and stares at his 2 girls.

They both sleep the same way, he realizes. They both have their hands up by their chin, their right leg is kicked out a little and they both make the same face. He smiles, trying not to chuckle.

With that thought, Clark shuts his eyes and drifts off to sleep.


	25. Chapter 25

Surprise Return

_**The next morning…**_

"**Lois," Clark says as he sees Lois pass by him in the Daily Planet hallway.**

"**Oh, hey Clark," she says.**

"**Oh, hey Clark?" he asks. "You sure sped out of the townhouse fast this morning. Is everything okay?" **

"**Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" she asks, juggling the folders she has in her hands. "Look, I need to get these up to editing."**

"**Lois," Clark says as he watches her catch the elevator right before the door closes.**

**He shakes his head and pushes his glasses up. He smiles at the ladies standing at the reception desk and heads back towards his own.**

"**I sure don't get how those two are a couple," the receptionist says to the other lady standing at her desk.**

"**Who, Lane and Kent?" she asks.**

**The receptionist nods. "He's so…..nerdy and she's so sophisticated," she says, sitting a little taller.**

**The reporter smiles and chuckles. "He might look nerdy but have you noticed that body?"**

**The receptionist bites the corner of her mouth. "No….I can't get past the glasses and slicked back hair."**

"**Hmph. Take a closer look. That man is H-O-T. Lois Lane is a lucky bitch," the reporter says before walking back to her desk.**

**The receptionist tries to take a better look at Clark who is now seated at his desk.**

"**Hmmm?" she says to herself.**

****

_**Later that week…..**_

**Lois smiles when she notices Clark as she enters the restaurant.**

"**Hi," he says, standing up to give her a quick kiss.**

"**Hi. Why are we meeting here?" she asks, looking around.**

**He shrugs. "I thought we'd probably end up eating here a lot once we move in…." he says opening up the menu. He waits for it.**

"**Move in? Clark, does that mean…." she tears his menu away.**

**He chuckles and takes her hand. "Yes, they accepted our offer."**

"**Oh my God. That was quick, don't you think?" she asks, touching her chest.**

"**It was quick but the agent said that they want to sell this thing because they're tired of two mortgages."**

**She sits back in her chair, trying to keep composed.**

"**Oh my God, Ella is going to be so excited when we show her. I have an idea which one I want as her bedroom but we can let her pick out which of the other two she wants as her playroom and then the other one we'll make the office…."**

"**Lois," Clark stops her, gently squeezing her hand. "We should talk about that, don't you think?"**

"**You don't want an office?" she gulps.**

**He gives her a look. "You know what I mean. The comment you made the other day."**

"**I don't know why I said that. I wasn't thinking. I mean, we're not even married. We should probably take one step at a time."**

"**So, you don't want to have any more children?"**

**She bites her lower lip. "I don't know," she shrugs. "I didn't think that I did but then that comment came out…." she shakes her head.**

**He nods. "I see."**

"**I think there's a part of me that does so that you can be a part of the whole thing. I wouldn't have to be…."**

"**Alone?" he asks.**

**She shakes her head. "No, that's not it. Because I wasn't alone before but I didn't have you. This time I'd be able to say that the dad was going to be at the next ultrasound."**

**He smiles.**

"**That's not a reason to have another child, though."**

"**I know," she says, looking down.**

"**You know how much I love you?"**

**She looks up at him with a tear in her eye. "Yes, of course."**

"**If I gave you my opinion, would that help?"**

**She smiles and nods.**

**He leans closer and takes her other hand. "I love you and Ella more than anything and if we got pregnant, that would make me even happier than I already am. But if it's not what you want for the right reasons, then I'm happy with what we have…."**

"**Oh Clark," she sighs. "I do want another child, I'm just….."**

**He waits for her to finish.**

"**Scared."**

**There, she said it.**

"**Scared?" he asks, gently rubbing the back of her hands with his thumbs.**

"**Yes." She removes one of her hands from his and wipes the lone tear from her cheek. "What if something goes wrong this time."**

"**Why would something go wrong this time? I thought everything went relatively smoothly with Ella."**

"**It did, but…..Emil will have to explain," she says with a sniffle.**

"**Did Emil say there could be danger with the next pregnancy?" he asks.**

"**I'm not sure. I know that sounds stupid but he ran off all this mumbo jumbo and all I know is that it scared me."**

**Clark releases her hand and sits back in his chair and nods. "Okay. Well, we'll definitely check with him. I don't want to risk anything."**

**She smiles softly at him.**

**He acts like he hears something in the distance and she gives him the nod of understanding. He gets up from the table, kisses her cheek and rushes off.**

**He puts his Superman outfit on and flies to the roof of the Daily Planet to make sure everything is in place.**

**He calls Lois' cell.**

**She looks at the caller ID. "Don't tell me…you're going to be awhile."**

"**Actually, can you meet me behind the building? I'll pick you up from there."**

"**Uh, sure."**

**She explains to the waiter that they're leaving early, something came up and she walks around the building.**

"**What's going on?" she asks.**

"**You'll see," he says, taking her in his arms. "Hold tight."**

**She grabs onto his neck and he takes off. She let's out a little bit of a squeal as she looks down at the ground below.**

"**Oh my God, Clark," she says. "I mean, Superman."**

**He smiles as he soars over Metropolis with her. He makes sure they fly by their townhouse so she can see what it looks like from his point of view.**

"**It's so beautiful," she says, looking down at the city lights.**

"**It sure is," he says, looking at her.**

**He finally lands on the Daily Planet roof.**

"**Clark, what's going on?" she asks, smoothing out her jacket. Good thing she wore a pants suit today.**

"**You'll see," he says, flipping on a switch that brings up lights. He decorated the roof with a beautiful garden again.**

"**Clark," she says, touching her chest.**

"**I wanted to do this in the park but I didn't think it was a good idea in this outfit," he says, looking down at himself. **

**She chuckles.**

**He walks over to a bench and grabs something.**

**He walks over to Lois, who's eyes get bigger when she sees it's a small jewelry box.**

"**Lois…." he shakes his head and looks down at the box he's holding, "I kind of said at the restaurant what I had planned to say to you right now. That's when I realized I better just ask before I say too many other things and make any other plans with you."**

**A tear falls down Lois' cheek.**

"**You and Ella are my world. I can't imagine my life without the two of you in it. Will you marry me?" he asks, opening the box.**

**She looks at the ring and touches her fingertips to her lips and nods.**

"**Yes. A million times, yes," she says.**

**He smiles, stands up and slips the ring on her finger.**

**They stare into each other's eyes, in what seems like slow motion, he leans down and slowly kisses her.**


	26. Chapter 26

So, keep in mind, I wanted to complete this before I posted it. I wrote the first part easily and then how to end it stumped me and I almost feel like I rushed the ending just to have an ending. Yes, this is the last chapter but I plan on writing one-shots or maybe short stories with a couple of chapters using these characters because I do think there's more to tell. There should be angst in there somewhere, which I never wrote because again, I just wanted to finish the story.

You guys have given me great feedback and actually some ideas of what should be explored so I'll take those into consideration as I write the one-shots. I haven't written one, yet but I will for sure.

**Surprise Return**

_A few weeks later…._

"So, what are you going to do with this room?" Chloe asks about the bedroom closest to the master bedroom.

"We're going to wait and see," Lois says.

"Oh?" Chloe asks, intrigued.

"We'll see," she smiles. "First things, first….I want to be married this time."

Chloe puts her arm around her cousin. "Well, in a week…."

"I know. Can you believe it, Chlo? Clark and I are finally getting married."

"I can believe it, actually," Chloe says, giving Lois a gentle squeeze.

"Aunt Chloe come see my room," Ella says once she's found the one person who she hasn't shown her new room to. She grabs her hand and drags her down the hall.

"Whoa there, remember to be gentle," Lois yells down the hall noticing that Chloe's arm is about to be pulled out of the socket.

"Sowwy, mommy," Ella yells from down the hall.

Lois smiles and looks around the empty room that will most likely become a baby nursery.

She can picture the baby crib against that wall and the rocking chair over in that corner.

"Planning out where the furniture is going to go already?" Clark asks.

She jumps a little and blushes.

"No…." he gives her a look, "Okay maybe."

He wraps his arms around her from behind and she rests her head against his shoulder.

"I'm so happy," she says.

"Me too," he agrees.

"I love this house, I love our friends, I love my job…..I love my family," she says, holding his arms around her tighter.

"And in a week, we'll be legal," he chuckles.

"Right," she laughs with him.

"Clark, you know you don't have to take me anywhere on our honeymoon," she says, turning around in his arms. She wraps her arms around his neck.

"Just a short one," he says before he leans down and kisses her neck.

"Like, just a few days?"

He nods.

"Oh okay," she says, convinced.

He chuckles against her skin, which tickles.

"Hey you two, your bedroom is down the hall," Oliver says when he walks by the room they're in.

They let go of each other.

"Hey, it's our house," Lois says, with her hands on her hips.

"Come on," Clark smiles as he takes Lois' hand and leads her out of the room.

Lois punches Ollie in the stomach on her way by.

"Umph," he says, doubling over dramatically.

"And my tea set will go here," Ella says, showing Chloe where her small table and chairs are going to go.

"Wow, you've got this all planned out, don't you El?" Chloe asks, ruffling Ella's hair.

"She's just like her mama," Lois says proudly.

"God, I hope the next one is a boy and takes after Clark," Oliver says, rubbing his stomach.

"Me too," Lois smiles over at Clark.

_One week…._

Lois looks over at Clark. Her heart is full. She can't imagine fitting another thing inside of it.

"Have I told you how beautiful you look?" Sam Lane asks his daughter.

"Awww, daddy. Only a hundred times but you can tell me again," Lois says, giving her dad a hug.

"I can't believe how big my granddaughter is getting," he says, watching Ella dance with Henry.

"I know," she sighs.

She grabs his hand. "Daddy, you sure you're okay with everything we told you yesterday?" Lois asks.

When the General came to town, they figured it was best to get everything out in the open with him.

"I will admit it's a lot to take in but as long as he treats you well and you're happy, that's good enough for me."

They hug again.

"Excuse me, sir, I'd like to have one more slow dance with my wife," Clark says.

"Of course," Sam says, letting Lois go.

Clark takes Lois' hand and leads her to the dance floor.

Lois sighs and rests her head against his chest.

"We fit perfectly, do you realize that?" she asks, her eyes closed.

"What do you mean?" he chuckles.

"My head fits perfectly under your chin with 3" heels on."

He smiles. "Ah, I see…..you're right, a perfect fit."

Lois feels someone tugging on her dress so she looks down at her smiling daughter who is holding her arms open to be picked up.

Clark leans down and picks her up.

"Now, this is the perfect dance," he says, swaying back and forth with his two girls.

Clark hears gun shots in the far distance. He instantly looks over at Chloe and Oliver. Both realize what's going on and they quickly leave the room to figure out what Clark heard. They had decided before the wedding that if Clark heard anything going on, he wouldn't leave. Not today. He'd give Chloe and Oliver a sign and they'd take care of it. Dinah notices them leaving and leaves to go help as well.

"We have such wonderful friends," Lois says when she notices what just happened.

Clark nods and holds them closer.

_A few days later - somewhere tropical…_

Lois rolls over and smiles.

"Where are we now?" she asks, breathlessly.

"Ummm in the Caribbean somewhere," Clark says, rolling on his side to look at his wife. He brushes some of her hair away that is sticking to her forehead.

"Mmmmmm," she says.

He starts to play with one of her bare breasts.

"Clark," she whines.

"What?" he asks, knowing what she's going to say.

"I do need to rest sometime. I don't have the kind of stamina you have. Although I do enjoy it…"

"Okay. I'll let you sleep for a few minutes," he smiles.

She rolls her eyes before shutting her eyes.

"I'm just trying to have my way with you as much as I can before we have to go back to a house with a 3 year-old."

She opens her eyes. "I think we've broken the record for the most love making in three days."

He chuckles.

"I'm serious," she says before closing her eyes again.

Clark begins to think about it….."I could go get some blue Kryptonite…."

She thinks about what he's saying before she opens her eyes.

"Already?" she asks, leaning up on her elbows a bit.

"If you think it's too soon to try…"

"No…I don't know," she says.

"We talked to Emil about everything and he thinks everything should be fine…."

"I know."

"It's okay, we can wait," he says, laying down on his back.

She rolls over and leans against his chest. She does a quick calculation in her head.

"It is the right time of the month to try….."

He watches her but doesn't say anything.

"Oh what the hell," she says, rolling off of him so he can get up.

She swats his bare butt when he gets up out of bed.

"Don't take long…I'm back in the mood," she says.

He quickly gets dressed and flies to Smallville to find the blue kryptonite and a led box to carry it in.

She rolls over to lay on her back and smiles up at the ceiling. She loves her life.

THE END (for now)…


End file.
